Ahead of the release of the latest Australia Bureau of Statistics figures on nation-wide unemployment rates this Thursday, I sat down with two Peel business experts to review region current job status.
Peel Regional Development Australia (RDA) chief executive officer John Lambrecht and Mandurah-Murray employment facilitator Maryanne Baker were more than happy to speak about the topic.
And I can see why.
From that conversation, I’m happy to report that they boasted an optimistic future – as mentioned in the Mandurah Mail’s front page story this week.
Which seems to be a stark contrast from headlines describing the regions employment situation in the past.
Over the past two decades, the region’s results have been poor, to say the least.
Peel’s unemployment rate was currently sitting at 7.3 per cent.
According to John, that’s an improvement of point six of a per cent, in the past 12 months. Despite that positive news, there’s another side of the coin.
The Peel is still grappling with young unemployment.
Let’s not forget that.
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In just October 2018, Mandurah was dubbed the youth unemployment capital of WA. Not an ideal claim to fame.
However, there are some interesting “job-creating” projects on the horizon.
The Peel Business Park, Dwellingup National Trails Centre, Quambie Park aged care expansion and the resources needed to assist the National Disability Insurance Scheme all seem promising for the region.
Even a shake-up of the City of Mandurah’s procurement policy sparks confidence.
The new deal ensures local businesses vying for City of Mandurah work could be given an edge over their non-local competitors.
Despite those projects, experts agree, there’s a long way to go.
While the ABS revealing their headline statistics on Thursday, we’ll have to wait until next week for a regional breakdown.
And unfortunately when it comes to individual towns in our region, results from the Department of Jobs and Small Business Small Area Labour Markets report for the December quarter will be only be released in March.
But we’ll be sure to keep you updated then.
What are your thoughts on unemployment in the Peel region? Send our team a letter via editor.mandurahmail@fairfaxmedia.com.au.
