By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
GEELONG is part of the third-most “economically vulnerable” region in the country, according to a new report.
And job-assistance and rescue packages might not have a significant impact on the problem, the report warned.
The situation was likely to “significantly” worsen following further job losses at Alcoa and Ford.
Geelong has access to a range of job assistance packages worth multi-millions of dollars, including a $30 million Geelong Region Investment and Innovation Fund and a Federal Government $155 million Growth Fund.
Corangamite MP Sarah Henderson this week announced an extra $500,000 Geelong job-seeker initiative.
National Centre for Vocational Education Research managing director Rod Camm said the report uncovered a “dearth of robust information” on the impact of job-assistance packages.
“The various assistance packages available in many of the more vulnerable regions were focused on improving employment in the region.
“However, there’s very little evaluative data available on these packages by which to assess their success or otherwise, so their impact is not clear.”
The report calculated the region suffered a plunge in average working hours of more than seven per cent between 2002 and 2012.
The Barwon-Western District region was behind only Gosford-Wyong and Central Western Sydney on the economic vulnerability scale.
The main reason for the drop was the reduction in average work hours in the region’s dominant industries of manufacturing, health care and retail trade, the report said.
Surprisingly, the biggest falls were in health care and retail, with only a “minimal” drop in manufacturing hours.
“With the closure of the Ford car manufacturing plant in Geelong by October 2016, resulting in the loss of around 500 jobs, this is likely to significantly impact upon the manufacturing sector in this region,” the report said.
“The loss of 260 jobs at the Geelong head office of a major national retailer (Target) in June 2013 further compounds the employment declines experienced in the retail sector.”
Alcoa’s aluminium smelter is set to close in a month and its rolling mill, employing 400, will close by the end of the year following wide-scale job cuts at Boral and Qantas at Avalon Airport.
