Labour Market Efficiency

OVERALL TRENDS
Many regional areas are successfully engaging their local workforce in the economy and may even be seeking new workers to join the regions workforce and support expansion. Connected Lifestyle Regions surrounding major cities perform particularly well
across all indicators of Labour Market Efficiency.

However the labour market story varies across regional Australia. Some have highly efficient labour markets, while others exhibit significant structural unemployment, poor workforce engagement and welfare dependency issues.

OUR GREATEST COMPETITIVE CHALLENGE – BRINGING WELFARE DEPENDENT COASTAL AREAS INTO THE ECONOMY
Many parts of regional Australia are struggling to include large portions of their working age population in the economy.
The average rate of welfare dependency for Local Government Areas (LGAs) in regional Australia is around 30 per cent. This is a significant loss of potential workforce. The average for LGAs in metropolitan areas is lower at 19 per cent.

The particularly poor rankings for many coastal areas reflect persistent structural issues within these labour markets. These LGAs will find it difficult to engage the local workforce and take advantage of new market opportunities as they emerge unless this trend is addressed.

A theme analysis is available here

The full report is available here