Jobless risk deemed higher in Queensland

8 Jul 2009, 6:17 pm   -   Source: AAP
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Queensland cities and town are the most at risk of unemployment (Reuters)

Queensland cities and town are the most at risk of unemployment (Reuters)

Beautiful one day, precarious the next. That's the verdict of a report that says coastal tourist towns in Queensland will be the hardest hit by the global economic downturn.

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Beautiful one day, precarious the next. That's the verdict of a report that says coastal tourist towns in Queensland will be the hardest hit by the global economic downturn.

An interim Department of Employment report released on Wednesday identified 11 areas across Australia that are at risk of higher unemployment.

Five of those areas were in Queensland, including the Sunshine Coast, Cairns and Townsville, off the Great Barrier Reef.

'Workers at risk'

"These are areas of the country where we know that workers are particularly at risk," Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard told reporters in Melbourne.

The 22-page report said all the regions identified had entrenched employment disadvantages and structural issues.

Centrelink job expos and financial information seminars should be rolled out in these employment priority areas, the report said.

It also called for Defence recruitment drives and training programs.

Other areas of high risk

The NSW central coast and Hunter regions, north of Sydney, north-western Melbourne and areas of central NSW and Victoria were also identified as at-risk unemployment areas.

In South Australia, areas north of Adelaide including Port Augusta, Whyalla and Port Pirie were identified.

Trucking magnate Lindsay Fox and former ACTU secretary Bill Kelty will be sent to the identified employment priority zones from next week to work alongside the government's new job agency arm Job Services Australia.

"These workshops should develop strategic local plans that identify employer needs, skill and labour shortages,

structural problems, ways to address high levels of unemployment and measurable goals and ways to get there," said

the report, which was presented in Melbourne on Wednesday by Ms Gillard, Employment Participation Minister Mark Arbib and parliamentary secretary for employment.

Communities monitored

The federal government has previously named nine at-risk employment areas which included western Sydney, northern NSW, the Illawarra region south of Sydney and south-eastern Melbourne.

Ms Gillard said the government would continue to monitor the unemployment risk to communities

"We will keep a close eye on all of the country," she told reporters in Melbourne on Wednesday.

"The global recession is obviously a developing thing and the impact on Australia has become clearer over time, but we still have a long way to go."

The report comes ahead of the release on Friday of labour force data for June, collated by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Economists are expecting the jobless rate to jump from 5.7 per cent to 5.9 per cent.

 

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