Townsville leading the way unemployment rate down

Labour force figures released today show that the Townsville is leading the way with the largest annual percentage decrease in the unemployment rate across the state.

Member for Townsville Scott Stewart said the latest data for February shows that the Palaszczuk Government’s commitment to job growth is working.

“This is great news for our growing city of Townsville with a 3.3% decrease in the unemployment rate over the last 12 months,” Mr Stewart said.

Member for Mundingburra Coralee O’Rourke said that Townsville had the largest annual employment growth rate with a 12.6% increase over the year ending February 2018.

“I’m proud to see that in the past year we have experienced an increase of almost 12,000 more jobs in Townsville, this is great news for thousands of local families,” Ms O’Rourke said.

Member for Thuringowa Aaron Harper said Townsville has reported the second highest increase in their participation rate across all 19 regions.

“Our participation rate has increased by 4.6%, showing that Queenslanders have the confidence to find a job in our local job market in Townsville,” Mr Harper said.

Minister for Employment Shannon Fentiman said the Palaszczuk Government’s Back to Work program gives employers the confidence they need to be able to employ more Queenslanders.

“We have now assisted more than 2,000 North Queenslanders to get a job with more than $15.5 million across more than 875 local employers thanks to the Back to Work program.”

“We have seen more than 14,000 participants in our Skilling Queenslanders for Work initiative get into work, including more than 800 participants in Townsville.”

Townsville has reported the third largest annual drop in youth unemployment across all 19 regions with a 3.9% decrease since February 2017.

ENDS

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