DESPITE Morwell's unemployment figure being one of the highest in the state, at 9.4 per cent, the Federal Government's most recent data indicates the wider Latrobe Valley's jobless problem is no worse than the state's average.
In an unusual anomaly, the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations released figures last week showing the Latrobe Valley's unemployment rate was 5.3 per cent - only marginally higher than the state average of 5.2 per cent.
Though DEEWR's website said that figure was derived from its own 'small area labour market' statistics from the September quarter 2011, that data shows Morwell's jobless rate is 9.4 per cent, Moe's is 7.7 per cent and Traralgon's is 4.6 per cent - and the Latrobe Valley's average was 7.1 per cent. How that figure supposedly dropped to 5.3 per cent by December is unexplained.
Traralgon's impressively low unemployment rate undoubtedly affects the region's average, prompting State Member for Morwell Russell Northe to implore government and bureaucrats to "be keenly aware that there are challenges within townships in the Latrobe Valley".
In fact, Morwell's unemployment rate, according to the September quarter figures, is surpassed only by Dandenong, Sunshine and Broadmeadows while Moe's is also amongst the highest in Victoria. Traralgon's jobless rate is below the state average and is comparable to inner Melbourne areas including Brunswick, Northcote and Coburg.
When asked if a Valley-wide average figure of 5.3 per cent might not accurately reflect to the Federal Government the true scenario across much of the region, Mr Northe said "one would hope they realise it is necessary to drill down those figures to see which towns are doing well and which need forms of assistance for job growth".
The most recent DEEWR area profile for the Valley showed there are 6593 job seekers here with an average age of 37 years and average "job seeker duration" of 28 months. The working age population (from 15 to 64 years) stands at 109,515 people.
While applauding figures that showed Victoria's unemployment rate had fallen sharply from 5.5 per cent to 5.2 per cent in December 2011, State Treasurer Kim Wells also said the state's regional unemployment had fallen by 0.4 per cent to 4.7 per cent in the three months to last November.
He said that was "the lowest unemployment rate of any regional economy except WA".
While Traralgon's figure is slightly lower even than the average for the state's regions, Morwell and Moe's are well above.
Mr Northe said the purpose of an industry and infrastructure component of the state government's $30 million Latrobe Valley Advantage Fund was job creation for the region which "hopefully will boost those numbers over the next period of time".
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