Youth unemployment on the Mid North Coast is rising and more than seven per cent higher than the national youth unemployment rate for 15-24 year olds.
The Mid North Coast features in ‘Australia’s Youth Unemployment Hotspots Snapshot’ released by the Brotherhood of St Laurence. The region is ranked number two in NSW for youth unemployment and sixth in a top 20 list of regions in Australia.
This is the first year the region has made the top 20 list after the Australian Bureau of Statistics labour force survey data revealed a jump from 13.6 per cent in January 2015 to 19.5 per cent in January 2016. This contrasts with an “improvement in the overall rate” – declining from December 2014 of almost 14 per cent to 12.2 percent in January 2016.
The Brotherhood of St Laurence says “the malaise of unemployment persists in many rural and regional locations” and identifies the Mid North Coast region as a cluster of high unemployment.
“In NSW the Hunter Valley and Mid North Coast regions have youth unemployment rates that are respectively more than nine and seven percentage points higher than the State average.”
