UNEMPLOYMENT in Melbourne’s west is rising faster than anywhere in the city, with ex-manufacturing workers continuing to join the jobless queue.
Bureau of Statistics figures 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, the outlook was worse for Melbourne’s outer-western suburbs where 6.9 per cent were out of work.
Youth unemployment was 14.9 per cent.
A new report from the state opposition shows the area’s electorates have recorded the sharpest unemployment increases since December 2010.
SEE Telltale signs, so up spring the barriers.
The report, which compiled unemployment data from December 2010 to June 2012, ranked the electorates of Tarneit, Altona and Derrimut as the three Melbourne areas with the highest jumps in the jobless rate.
Within the electorate of Tarneit, spanning Tarneit, Werribee, Werribee South and Hoppers Crossing, unemployment increased 2.6 per cent. For the Altona district – including Altona, Altona Meadows, Laverton and Point Cook – the figures showed an increase of 2 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 western suburbs, being a traditionally blue-collar area, these industries are hurting and that’s having an impact,” he said.
Mr Wasley said MatchWorks’ Werribee branch had faced a rise in the number 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 had held up strongly despite the high Australian dollar.
