Food queue rising with Corio jobless

Andrew Mathieson
RISING unemployment in Geelong’s northern suburbs is placing a strain on vital services, according to welfare agencies.
Corio’s jobless rate has reached 10.2 per cent, forcing a charity to serve community meals in the suburb.
A lack of vacancies in blue-collar work has left employment boards at job agencies bare, providing limited opportunities for residents finding themselves on dole queues.
Corio has registered the highest unemployment figures for regional Victoria, according to the latest federal Department of Employment labour markets report.
Only Melbourne’s traditional battling suburbs – Broadmead-ows, Dandenong and Sunshine – fared worse in the state.
Central Geelong hit 6.9 per cent, Bellarine 6.8 per cent and Geelong West 6.2 per cent during the December quarter.
Corio’s unemployed jumped from more than 1700 to nearly 3000 within 12 months. The suburb’s jobless rate was almost double the national and state averages of five per cent.
The Salvation Army said it had been offering “affordable” cheap meals in the city centre but found most of its guests struggling to make ends meet were travelling from the northern suburbs.
Northside Geelong Com-munity Centre coordinator Jo Cresswell said the charity provider decided to shift the bulk of its operations to Corio.
The Salvos had since expanded its service of hot lunches to meet a “huge need”.
The lunches were serving almost 100 meals twice a week at significant cost to the Salvos, Ms Creswell said.
“We’re asking a gold coin donation if people can afford it but we find most of the people that really need the service just can’t,” she said.
“Our two-course Thursday meal is well-frequented and they’re coming to get their evening meal at lunch time.”
Ms Creswell said 60 per cent of people in Geelong who used the Salvos’ free emergency relief service for financial assistance were visiting the Corio centre.
Matchworks acting general manager Mark McCoy said his organisation’s two Corio em-ployment agencies had experienced “great numbers” of jobseekers in the past year.
He said job vacancies were dwindling in textile, clothing and footwear industries.
The Geelong region has lost more than 1400 manufacturing jobs in the past 18 months.
“For an employment provider, it’s been a pretty tough year in terms of finding employment for our jobseekers,” Mr McCoy said.
“Corio is certainly a reflection of that.”