Up until the latest lockdown, the Wollongong labour market had recovered relatively well from both the initial COVID shock and restrictions from early 2020 and the removal of JobKeeper, according to UOW economics lecturer Dr Martin O'Brien.
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However, the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released on Thursday revealed "jobs were now disappearing by the week", Dr O'Brien said.
"As of June 26 there were four per cent more jobs on the ABS payroll stats in Wollongong compared to March 14th (2020), which is used as the reference point for the start of COVID," Dr O'Brien said.
"However, since the June 26 lockdown announcement local jobs have gradually disappeared each week as the lockdown continued.
"In Wollongong, jobs have declined by 6.5 per cent (from June 26 to July 17), with similar falls of about six per cent for Kiama-Shellharbour and Dapto-Port Kembla areas.
"Comparing this to Newcastle, which until this week hadn't been affected by such lockdowns.....their jobs dropped by less than two per cent and they have kept the returns from the COVID recovery, with their labour market remaining larger than when COVID began.
"We don't have the breakdown of industry and age at the regional level, but if we extrapolate what has been observed at the aggregate level the biggest losers in the recent lockdown was the accommodation and food services industry (or hospitality) which lost nearly 10 per cent of jobs in the first half of July, followed by agriculture (down 7.7 per cent), administration and support service (5.9), and arts and recreation services (4.5).
"Of concern is that even health and social assistance had dropped by 3 per cent, an industry that had grown in size and obviously importance, in the COVID period."
Dr O'Brien said there was a stage where the Wollongong and Newcastle labour markets were quite similar during the whole COVID period.
"We were even nudging slightly above them in terms of local jobs growth until we nosedived after June 26," he said.
"It is a reasonable assumption to say Newcastle and Wollongong labour markets are comparable and make for a good natural experiment comparison.
"We both have ports, mining, regional universities, strong tourism in our regions and most importantly we are in close proximity to Sydney so would expect that the fortunes or misfortunes from Sydney will spill over into our economies and labour markets.
"This is where we see jobs in Newcastle fall by just under two per cent since the Greater Sydney lockdown, so this may be interpreted as a lockdown spillover effect from Sydney to other regions.
"In comparison, Wollongong employment fell by 6.5 per cent in the same period, consisting of the spillover effect from Sydney's lockdown on our economy and then the double whammy of having our own local lockdown when classified as part of Greater Sydney."
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Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
