Elsie Lange
The Hume council area has the highest unemployment rate in the state, despite a 2.9 per cent drop in the jobless rate since June 2021.
Latest National Skills Commission data showed a drop in unemployment in the municipality from 11.6 per cent in June last year to 8.7 per cent in June 2022.
Unemployment in some areas of Hume was much higher than in others, despite a drop across the board. In Broadmeadows, the jobless rate was 18.8 per cent in June this year compared to 22.6 per cent in June 2021.
In Campellfield – Coolaroo, unemployment fell from 23.9 per cent to 20 per cent, while Roxburgh Park – Somerton experienced a more than 4 per cent drop from 18.5 per cent to 14.3 per cent.
Sunbury and Sunbury South both experienced a drop in their comparatively smaller jobless rates from June 2021 to June 2022 – from 6.4 per cent to 4 per cent and 7.2 per cent to 4.6 per cent respectively.
Hume’s figures were more than double the statewide average of 4.3 per cent in June 2022.
Sunbury Business Association president Michael Osborne said he was happy to see the decline, which represented increasing consumer and employer confidence following years of lockdowns.
“We haven’t got the threat of lockdowns over us, we can go about our business with a bit more assurance – we can make decisions for the longer term,” he said.
“When you’re being threatened with lockdowns, you can’t plan for the future.”
He also said the winding back of federal government income support, including JobKeeper which ensured employees were paid while they were in lockdown, meant more people had to go back to work.
Mr Osborne said the reason for the disparity between the unemployment rates in some areas of Hume compared to Sunbury was to do with the kinds of businesses in the town.
“There is a different makeup of businesses here, there are much smaller or family=based businesses here,” he said.
