Labour force trends in Regional NSW

Summary: This statistical indicators publication sets out labour force trends for the 13 regions of Regional NSW for the period May 2000 to May 2014. It is a companion paper to the Research Service publications, Labour force trends in Greater Sydney and NSW regional labour force trends by labour force indicator. The ABS releases labour force data for the 28 NSW Statistical Areas Level 4 (SA4s) (see maps from page 8 of this paper) in two publications: Labour Force, Australia, Detailed – Electronic Delivery, May 2014; and Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, Quarterly, May 2014. 15 of these SA4s are located in Greater Sydney and 13 in Regional NSW. In this paper, all 93 NSW Electorates, for both the 2013 and 2004 Redistributions, are matched to their corresponding SA4s. On pages 11 to 15, the electorates are matched to three SA4s at most (note that several electorates lie across more than three SA4s). Tables list the percentage of each electorate’s population located in an SA4, as calculated using the 2011 Census. 31 labour force indicators feature in this publication. The first 12 include key labour force indicators such as employment, the unemployment rate, the youth unemployment rate and the participation rate. Except in the case of long-term unemployment, these indicators are broken down by gender and by age – total, persons aged 15 and over, and youth, persons aged 15 to 24. The last 19 indicators concern employment by industry. Two tables are provided for each industry: a count of persons employed in the industry; and the percentage of total employed persons employed in the industry. Each regional profile contains the data on all 31 labour force indicators, together with graphs of key indicators. The NSW electorates (2013 Redistribution) located in each region are listed in the profile, together with the percentage of their population located in the region. Every region is ranked from highest (1st) to lowest (28th) for those indicators which are percentages or ratios. Regional NSW figures are also included in each profile for ease of comparison. A section at the end of the paper contains all the NSW, Greater Sydney and Regional NSW figures. This publication starts with a section on key labour force concepts and youth unemployment. Reading this chapter prior to the rest of the paper is recommended in order to best understand the figures presented, especially with regards to youth unemployment. Several less well-known labour force indicators aid interpretation of such key indicators as the youth unemployment rate. These include, for example, the youth unemployment ratio and the ratio of youth-to-adult unemployment rates