In 2019, Wollongong City Council's Economic Development Strategy set an ambitious target of 10,500 net new jobs over the next decade. Now, five years later, the city is just 415 jobs shy of hitting that 2029 target.
This quarter's Wollongong Economic Insights Report shows that the city is 96 per cent of the way of achieving 10,500 jobs by the 2029 deadline.
"This is an extraordinary achievement for Wollongong and one that has been reached in the face of some significant challenges that no one could have predicted in 2019 when the Strategy was developed,'' Wollongong City Lord Mayor Councillor Gordon Bradbery AM said.
"The latest data available shows that in 2022-23 there were some 102,802 local jobs within the Wollongong Local Government area, which was a 5.3 per cent increase on the previous year and a 11 per cent increase on the 2019 baseline. Essentially this means we're 96 per cent of the way there to reaching our 2029 target, which is terrific.
"While this is 2022-23 data, and there are some broader challenges that may influence what we see in the 2023-24 data, it's important to note that this growth has continued despite the impacts of the global pandemic. It shows that there are real inroads being made in the city's growth and development.''
The new jobs data is taken from the National Economics State of the Regions Dataset and is focussed on the creation of new job opportunities. This is different to the city's unemployment rate. This was at 3.8 per cent in the December 2023 quarter and has increased from a historic low of 2.7 per cent in June 2023.
"What we set out to achieve in the Economic Development Strategy was bringing a net total of 10,500 new, previously unseen jobs to Wollongong,'' Cr Bradbery said.
"We've seen significant growth in the past few years in sectors like green energy and health and that's what is supporting the opening up of these new roles and positions.
"It's exciting for the city as we're continuing to see its growth, maturity and recognition as a place where cutting-edge advancements in science, technology and green energy is achieved.''
The information within the National Economics State of the Regions Dataset showed that the sectors with the largest job gains in over the past five years were health care and social assistance, construction, and public administration and safety while the largest job declines were in retail trade, information media and telecommunications and other services.
"In Wollongong, our largest local employing sectors continue to be health care and social assistance, construction and education and training,'' Cr Bradbery said.
"Retail trade is the fourth largest sector, but we are seeing a softening in business conditions in this sector that's in line with the state and national trends thanks to a tightening in consumer spending.''
This is the second Economic Insights Report released by Council. The report provides a snapshot of updated economic data for our city, which is supplemented by Spendmapp data that's provided to Council by Geografia. This shows local spending patterns across the local government area based on EFTPOS and credit card use.
"What we're seeing is over the 12 months to May 2024, the total spending when adjusted for inflation has fallen by 2.1 per cent in real terms compared to the year prior,'' Cr Bradbery said.
"But while spending in the CBD has fallen by 4.6 per cent compared to the previous 12 months, the total spend on dining and entertainment has in fact increased by 3.3 per cent over the same period. This is really pleasing and confirms that Council's investment in the nighttime economy and outdoor dining policies are hitting the mark.
"When we break that data down further, we can see that the spend has increased during work hours, while we have seen a reduction in spend during non-work hours. This is telling us that there are an increasing number of people returning to the office over the past 12 months, which has helped to off-set the overall reduction in spend due to cost-of-living pressures.''
Read the latest Economic Insights Report on our Business Information and Support page under 'Economic Profile'.
