Canberra is faring best in the hunt for jobs. Photo: greenleaf123.
The ACT has bucked the trend of falling job mobility and rising retrenchment, according to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data.
The ABS said 7.7 per cent of the national workforce – or 1.1 million workers – changed jobs over the past year as job mobility declined from 8.0 per cent the previous year.
But job mobility in the ACT increased by 0.7 per cent to 11 per cent, marking the Territory’s fourth successive year with the country’s highest figure. NSW had the lowest job mobility at 6.8 per cent.
ABS head of labour statistics Sean Crick said the ACT benefitted from several aspects, including the government workforce and age of the working population.
“Canberra has a higher portion of public sector jobs … if you move from one government department to another we consider that changing employer,” he said.
“The other thing to note for the Canberra region, particularly when you look at age, mobility is a lot higher for younger age groups.”
ABS data shows the most mobile group of workers is between the ages of 15 and 24; Canberra is Australia’s second youngest city.
The ACT also looks in a stronger position than its neighbours in other key employment statistics with a higher participation rate (72.1 per cent), employment to population ratio (69.6 per cent), and lower unemployment rate (3.9 per cent compared to the national 4.2 per cent).
But the ACT Council of Social Services (ACTCOSS) warns these figures can hide disadvantage in the capital.
ACTCOSS CEO Devin Bowles said many of the city’s residents were missing out.
“The ABS data highlights a long-term trend in the ACT job market. There are robust employment conditions for professionals and those with high levels of education, but this should not overshadow what is happening for non-professional Canberrans,” Dr Bowles said.
“More than 50,000 Canberrans would like some or more work than they currently have. This includes about 30,000 people who are looking for work but cannot find it. They are doing it tough.”
In the ACT, the underemployment rate – those who want to work more hours – has slightly increased to 5.8 per cent over the last year.
Dr Bowles said since the cost-of-living crisis, more Canberrans were finding that full-time work was sometimes not enough.
“Even for those in work, we are finding more and more Canberra families are requiring community services, like food banks, to make ends meet,” he said.
“In an environment where the cost of living keeps going up and those without work are unable to find it, the Commonwealth Government should urgently raise the rate of the JobSeeker Payment above the poverty line.
“We need to stop propping up a punitive, for-profit employment services system that is harming people at the expense of taxpayers.”
