YOUNG people in Brimbank are at the forefront of the western suburbs’ jobs crisis, according to a St Albans employment agency, with more residents registered for Centrelink payments in Sunshine than in Geelong, Ballarat or Bendigo.
With the latest federal government figures revealing Sunshine had the second-highest jobless rate in the state in the March quarter, WISE Employment business manager Eda Kaya said rising youth unemployment was a major concern.
“Between 18-25 is where we are seeing growth in unemployment numbers,” he said. “Our focus is to support young people in the transition from school to the workforce with training and support.”
Sunshine’s jobless rate rose from 11.7 per cent in December to 12 per cent in March. It was up 0.1 per cent to 6.7 per cent in Keilor, while Melton East, which includes Caroline Springs and Hillside, had a jobless rate of 7.2 per cent (up from 7 per cent).
Figures show Centrelink in Sunshine has Victoria’s second-highest number of jobseekers receiving Newstart or Youth Allowance payments, increasing from 3526 in March to 3580 in April, ahead of Geelong (3117), Ballarat (2746) and Bendigo (2618).
Mr Kaya said language and cultural barriers contributed to Sunshine’s jobless rate being almost double that of Keilor.
“There are many challenges for people in the western suburbs,” he said. “Some residents struggle at times to secure employment because of multicultural and language barriers.”
Phil Lewis, of the University of Canberra’s Centre for Labour Market Research, said the western suburbs of Melbourne and Sydney bore the brunt of unemployment.
“When the national unemployment rate goes up from 5.2 to 5.7, there’s an intuitive view that it’s affecting everybody, but it’s not,” he said.
“It’s concentrated on people in manufacturing and manual-type jobs, which are disappearing quite quickly.”
— with Nick Toscano
