New government statistics released on Friday have revealed Mandurah’s jobless rate is still at record highs at 11.5 per cent in September after August figures showed a doubling of the number of unemployed since January.
The unemployment rate leapt to 16.2 per cent in August, according to the Department of Employment, up from 8.4 per cent in January.
The increase equated to thousands of people now out of work.
The new September figures show 16.9 per cent of young people aged 15-24 are jobless.
In August, a report by stockbroking firm CommSec found Mandurah had the second highest unemployment rate in the nation, at 10.5 per cent.
The only place with a higher jobless rate was Outback Queensland with 13.7 per cent.
According to the latest figures, the unemployment rate for people aged 15-24 is at 15 per cent.
In September, Mandurah MP David Templeman said concerns about growing unemployment would be at the forefront of the state election campaign scheduled for March, 2017.
“People out there want to hear how things will get better, because there is a real angst among families in Mandurah about their kids getting employment, their grand-kids having a future,” he said.
A spokesperson for the federal Department of Employment said the figures were three-month averages which were not as accurate as 12-month averages.
“In 12-month average terms, the unemployment rate in Mandurah rose from 9.2 per cent in January 2016 to 11.1 per cent in August 2016 (and has since increased to 11.5 per cent in September 2016), indicating the 3-month average data may be overstating the unemployment rate in Mandurah,” the spokesperson said.
“That said, given the 2.6 percentage point increase in Mandurah’s unemployment rate over the last 12 months and the fact that, at 11.5 per cent, Mandurah has the second highest regional unemployment rate in Australia, labour market conditions have clearly deteriorated in the region over the past year and the area remains disadvantaged.
“This reflects, more broadly, the slowdown in labour market conditions that has occurred across Western Australia against a backdrop of weaker mining investment activity.
“Anecdotal evidence suggests that a number of residents in Mandurah may have had fly-in fly-out jobs in the mining industry, which may also go some way to explaining the weakening in labour market conditions that has occurred in the Mandurah region.”
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Nathan Hondros
Senior Journalist for the Mandurah Mail, Australian Community Media, and Fairfax Media.
Senior Journalist for the Mandurah Mail, Australian Community Media, and Fairfax Media.
