Job vacancies costing regional Australian communities billions per year
A lack of available rental homes in some of Australia’s most desirable lifestyle regions is spurring a rise in job vacancies in those areas, according to a new report from Impact Economics.
The survey was commissioned by rental advocacy group Everybody’s home, and looked at of five of the fastest-growing areas during the pandemic – Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, Victoria’s Geelong and Surf Coast, NSW’s Illawarra and South Coast, South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula, and Tasmania’s Launceston and North Beach. It found that job vacancies have accelerated since March 2020 as vacancy rates fell, leasing prices rose and tenants’ housing stress worsened, The Australian reported.
The survey, released during the run-up to the federal government’s jobs summit next week, indicates that the job vacancies are creating an economic drag on the combined local economies of $2.59 billion each year.
Migration, lagging female participation, inadequate investment in skills and training, and a lack of housing are the most significant hurdles faced by the workforce, according to economist Angela Jackson, author of the report.
“The housing market is very important – people can’t move to jobs if they don’t have a house to move to,” Jackson told The Australian. “Adequate housing and affordable housing across Australia allows the labour market to work more effectively and efficiently, and improve labour mobility more broadly.”
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On the Sunshine Coast, the number of job vacancies has more than doubled since the beginning of the pandemic to 2,263, The Australian reported. Those vacancies are estimated to cost the economy $786 million annually. Over the same period, the total number of rental vacancies in the area fell from 874 in Marsh 2020 – a 1.4% vacancy rate – to 419, a 0.8% vacancy rate. Rents rose by an average of $168 per week.
In Illawarra, rental vacancies have more than halved to 1%, or 1,147 properties, The Australian reported. Meanwhile, advertised jobs have more than doubled to 2,848. Those job vacancies cost the local economy an estimated $642 million per year.
Kate Colvin, national spokeswoman for Everybody’s Home, told The Australian that the inability to find a rental property – and ballooning rent costs – are deterring people from taking jobs in regional communities.
“Our completely lopsided housing system is choking off the economic potential of regional Australia,” Colvin said.
