Shellharbour faces labour shortage
September 19, 2007
Section: News
Employment growth in the Shellharbour region and in the NSW South East generally is tracking at seven percent per annum, the strongest in more than a decade, according to ANZ Bank economists.
As a result, the region's unemployment rate has dropped to 4.6 percent, the lowest on record.
The economic challenge now facing the region, according to the bank's head of Australian Economics Tony Pearson, has now shifted from generating sufficient employment opportunities to ensuring the supply of labour keeps pace with demand " a task that will be made all the more difficult by the ageing of Shellharbour's population.
The booming tourism sector of the local economy is one factor behind the emerging employment dynamic.
In summer this year, the South Coast's beaches generated $24.9 million for the region's motels " up 1.9 percent on the previous year, according to the ANZ.
And the construction industry " our region's largest employer " remains well supported, with the value of residential approvals up 12.1per cent in the South East over the year. The strength of the local commercial sector is such that non-residential approvals were up 50.5 percent.
The jobs boom and projections of longer-term labour shortages are expected to reinforce political pressure towards policies aimed at raising labour force participation within the older age profile.
The ANZ's Melbourne-based Mr Pearson told the Lake Times that population growth had spawned a renaissance in regions including Shellharbour, with increased demand for goods and services, housing and infrastructure. This had generated new jobs and placed regional economies on a sound footing.
Importantly, more than 60 per cent of new jobs created have been full-time, a factor that is driving a precipitous downward trend in unemployment.
The ANZ says there are also positive signs for our primary coastal agri-industry, dairying.
ABARE is forecasting dairy prices to remain strong in the year ahead, a factor that is expected to help the region recover from drought.