A RECENT report from the Regional Australia Institute (RAI) analysing data from the Federal Government’s Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA) department has reported a significant downturn in jobs advertised in regional Victoria in the 12 months to February 2024, the worst performing area in the country.

The 12.1 per cent drop in jobs advertised matched a drop in the combined capital cities but attributed much of the negative return to areas around Ballarat and in the Central Highlands.

However, the Victorian Government late last week released a report pointing out the state’s regional unemployment rate remains the lowest in the country at 3.5 per cent.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) regional labour force data released on Friday showed that 7300 people in regional Victoria found jobs in the last month – the largest increase in the country.

The number of people employed in Victorian regional communities is now an all-time high of 821,800.

The most recent ABS state accounts data showed Victoria’s economy has grown by a cumulative 9.1 per cent over the past two years – ahead of NSW, Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania.

The national accounts also showed a strong 11.3 per cent boost in business investment in Victoria, driven by a pipeline of non-residential building projects in office buildings, warehouses and retail.    

The RAI said the other largest annual falls in regional Australia jobs advertised were in Tamworth and north-west NSW, and NSW North Coast.

The negative results appear to be an outlier across the regional areas - month-to-month job vacancies have remained unchanged at 76,000, with just a slight dip of 0.6 per cent, and the annual decline attributed in part by JSA as the end of “the period of record growth in advertisements following … COVID-19”.

“Despite this, (national) vacancy numbers remain at record levels, with around 50 per cent more advertisements in the labour market presently than compared with the monthly average for 2019,” the department added.

The minor monthly decline in regional job ads have largely reflected seasonal hiring patterns and the latest number of job ads is 6.3 per cent less than a year earlier.

The monthly changes in job vacancies were not uniform across regional Australia with parts of Tasmania, regional South Australia, and the Northern Territory all seeing increases in vacancies, both annually and for the month of February.

In terms of the occupations being demanded, vacancies are largest for professional roles (28 per cent) of all vacancies in February, followed by technicians and trades roles (16 per cent), community and personal service roles (13 per cent), and clerical and administrative roles (13 per cent).