Geelong turning into city of public servants

Andrew Mathieson
Geelong is becoming a city of public servants as growth in government jobs outstrips traditional manufacturing employment, according to new figures.
An annual City of Greater Geelong economic indicators bulletin shows Geelong’s council now employs about as many staff as the city’s Ford factory.
City Hall had 17 fewer staff than Ford’s 1374 workers in the last financial year, according to the bulletin.
Government agencies were the three biggest employers in the region, with Barwon Health employing 3470, Department of Education 2333 and Deakin University 1399.
Ford was fourth after slipping from its decades-long number-one ranking several years ago following ongoing job cuts at its Corio factory.
State Government’s Transport Accident Commission, which relocated to Geelong in 2008, was the sixth biggest employer with 763, while Alcoa was seventh with 714.
Golden Farms (formerly Steggles) and Corio’s Shell refinery were among the leading manufacturing employers with around 500 each.
Despite government agencies dominating the top five for most employees, the manufacturing sector had the biggest overall workforce ahead of retail, then health care/social services, construction and education/training.
Geelong Manufacturing Council executive officer David Peart said the bulleting figures were “by no means” the full story on employment in the city.
Mr Peart said industry was still a jobs giant in the region. He dismissed suggestions that industry employment was in general decline.
“The numbers of health/government services have probably shown growth but, when you look at value-adding to the region, manufacturing still dwarfs other sectors,” he said.
Mr Peart said the output of blue-collar industries was still a true indicator of their economic worth to the region even though they employed only 618 more staff in manufacturing than the 14,887 now working in retail.
“The employee numbers are but one of the measures and it’s good in some ways that the economy is growing in terms of diversity,” he said.
“But it remains that the manufacturing output is probably about six times that of, for example, retail, so that needs to be kept in perspective.”
The economic indicators bulletin also showed that manufacturing companies returned $11.556 billion to the Geelong region in 2008/2009 compared to $1.969 billion for retail.
The construction sector operated with the fourth-most workers but had the second highest return to the regional economy at $2.393 billion.