UNEMPLOYMENT in Melbourne’s west is rising faster than anywhere in the metropolitan area with former manufacturing workers continuing to join the jobless queue.
Australian Bureau of Statistics data released last week show the national unemployment rate reached 5.4 per cent in September, up from 5.1 per cent in August.
While the Victorian jobless rate was steady at 5.4 per cent, figures for Melbourne’s outer-western suburbs show that 6.9 per cent of their population was out of work. In the same region, youth unemployment was at 14.9 per cent.
A report from the state opposition said the outer-western electorates had recorded the sharpest unemployment increases since December 2010. The report, which compiled unemployment data from December 2010 to June this year, ranked the electorates of Altona, Tarneit and Derrimut as the three Melbourne areas with the highest jumps in the jobless rate. For the Altona district — including Altona, Altona Meadows, Laverton and Point Cook — the figures showed an increase of 2 per cent. Within the electorate of Tarneit, which spans Tarneit, Werribee, Werribee South and Hoppers Crossing, unemployment increased 2.6 per cent.
Michael Wasley, general manager of job agency MatchWorks, said the western suburbs were continually “over-represented” in unemployment figures due to the decline in manufacturing and retail industries. “In the west, being a traditionally blue-collar area, these industries are hurting and that’s having an impact.” Mr Wasley said MatchWorks’ Werribee branch had faced a rise in the number of residents laid off from car manufacturing plants.
Tarneit Labor MP and opposition employment spokesman Tim Pallas said NSW had created 46,000 full-time jobs in September, while Victoria created 1400.
“Other state governments are attracting business investment and investing themselves in major infrastructure projects to create jobs, [but] the Baillieu government seems too weak or lazy to get Victoria moving.”
Manufacturing, Exports and Trade Minister Richard Dalla-Riva said the state’s manufacturing sector held up strongly despite the high Australian dollar, with 13,100 more people in the industry than at the same time last year.
