By Alesha Capone
Melbourne’s west recorded the highest unemployment rate within the metropolitan area during April, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
About 42,100 residents of the western suburbs (8.8 per cent) were unemployed during April, compared to about 35,700 people for the same time in 2020.
The area with the next-highest number of unemployed residents was the south-eastern suburbs, with about 26,200 people out of work in April (a 5.4 per cent unemployment rate).
In June last year, businesses located in the 3029 and 3030 postcodes lodged a combined total of 6953 applications for the federal government’s JobKeeper wage subsidy program.
Aside from businesses in Melbourne’s 3000 postcode, which submitted 6693 applications, this was the highest number of applications submitted in the state.
The JobKeeper subsidy ended up in March, although a media release from the ABS said that “the end of the JobKeeper wage subsidy did not have a discernible impact on employment between March and April”.
During the first COVID-19 pandemic lockdown last year, the Wyndham Park Community Centre (WPCC) in Werribee established the volunteer-run Birdcage Community Store for residents in need of food and other necessities.
WPCC manager Greg Ferrington said that in the past 12 months, there has been “a dramatic increase in the number of people accessing our community store due to loss of work or a reduction in their hours”.
“The impact of the pandemic on Wyndham was significant as many community members work in the service industries,” he said.
Mr Ferrington said other Wyndham centres have also experienced an increase in the number of residents needing access to food.
In response, WPCC is rolling out a community pantry program across its fellow neighbourhood houses, community centres and some schools.
“We saw these pantries as a way of supporting these community members, for a day or two, until they could get to a more established food program elsewhere in the city,” Mr Ferrington said.
He also said that COVID has had a “dramatic effect” on people’s mental health.
“We hope to start a program at the community centre in the coming months that will provide a no-gap psychology service to our community members,” Mr Ferrington said.
“We believe that as a community centre we are here to meet the needs of our community holistically and this is another example of how we can do that.”
