Tara Murray
Unemployment, particularly youth unemployment, is likely to remain high in Brimbank in the coming years, according to a local learning and employment network.
Recently released federal government labour market data shows that Brimbank has one of the highest unemployment rates in the state, with a jobless rate of 10.9 per cent as of March.
Kings Park has the highest unemployment rate in Brimbank at 15.5 per cent, up from 12.5 per cent in March, 2020.
St Albans North and St Albans South have unemployment rates of 15.4 per cent and 14.6 percent as of March.
Brimbank and Melton Future Connect executive officer Deirdre Hardy said she wasn’t surprised by Brimbank’s high unemployment rate.
”We’ve experienced high youth unemployment for a number of years,” she said.
“The Brotherhood of St Lawrence did a study in 2019 which identified Melbourne’s west as one of the 20 hotspots for youth unemployment.”
Ms Hardy said not only was the west suffering from high unemployment, many people in the area were under employed in either lower paid roles or people working part-time or casual but seeking full-time employment.
Ms Hardy said while there had been a lot of government infrastructure funded in Brimbank, there was no requirement for local workers to be employed. She said local people should be employed on local jobs.
“What they do not often focus on it having to employ people from that area. Projects that are built in the west and should employ people from the west,” she said.
Ms Hardy said COVID-19 had an impact on the unemployment rate in the area, with the side effects to last for many years.
She said young people were already having trouble finding jobs. She said the postcode someone lives in or even their name were counting against them.
“Post COVID you’ve got young people who weren’t doing work let alone having been to school and experiencing things like work experience,” she said.
“Young people are craving the opportunity to engage with adults. A lot of young people have missed much of their right of passage.”
