Geelong, how are we going?
We know from daily media reports how our country and our state are travelling. But what about in our own backyard? The numbers of jobs on Geelong Careers give a true and focussed indication of what is happening in our region. Yes, Covid 19 has hit us hard. In August Job numbers dropped as low as 513 per day. Industries like hospitality and tourism have been particularly affected. But is there any sign yet of recovery? What about our usually strong trending industries like health, education and construction? How are we really going?
Job numbers have doubled
At Geelong Careers we know about numbers of jobs in Geelong. Every month the data produced by our live job feed gives us a good indication of how we are travelling, and the news is good. Since early September daily totals have doubled. Today, October 8th, we have 1213 on our live job feed. Geelong Careers’ jobs are drawn from all public sites and big jobs boards including CareerOne, Indeed, Adzuna and Seek . Added to those are our more than 326 local employer members who post their jobs directly onto our site. Geelong Careers has the most regional jobs of any jobs board, and we are free! So we can confidently aim is to inspire and inform our region with the truth.
Despite the pandemic shut down, job numbers are staying strong. Committee for Geelong CEO, Jen Cromarty, believes this is a reflection of Geelong’ natural resilience. “I think our economy is already built to withstand challenges”. Jen cites the past 40 years of our history where Geelong has traversed a series of huge challenges.“ From the textile industry crisis, through the Pyramid Building Society collapse, to the more recent demise of heavy industry, Geelong continues to emerge stronger, more resilient and more diverse.” Ross George, CEO of Austeng Engineering, agrees. His company has developed a flexibility to respond to opportunities even if they seemed outside core business. “This practice has enabled Austeng to weather Covid-19 challenges quite well. Being flexible and responsive is the key to our future and the future of Geelong.” Both Ross and Jen believe how we get together as a community to organise and leverage funding over the next few months is critical. Key leadership groups like Geelong Manufacturing, G21, the Chamber of Commerce and the Committee for Geelong have already formed a collective response to show government that Geelong is ready to go.
This is good news for the 9392 people who checked out jobs on Geelong Careers in September 2020, four thousand more than in August 2020, and the 326 employers loaded jobs exclusively onto the free Geelong Careers site, 26 more than September last year, when there was no Covid!
It is heartening to see more of our region accessing the free resource the GRLLEN built six years ago, with the aim of strengthening our region’s work force. In these challenging times we need to support each other more than ever.
For more data contact us at the GRLLEN on admin@grllen.com.au
Published: 12th October 2020