Downs 'strongest' nationally | Warwick News | Local News in Warwick

Warwick Daily News

IT'S good news: Warwick's unemployment figures put us in the same league as the nation's most upmarket city suburbs.

If you live here, you have a better chance of having a job than practically anywhere else in the country.

Or, in the words of demographic research company Australian Development Strategies, the “Darling Downs is the poster boy for what other regions should aspire to be”.

ADS boss John Black said latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed unemployment figures in our region had dropped in the past five months.

“Based on employment figures, which are a sound economic indicator, the Darling Downs has one of the strongest economic bases in the country,” Mr Black (pictured) said.

He said the region had been one of just a few nationally to boast declining unemployment figures for 2008 and into 2009.

“The Downs currently has unemployment figures of just 1.9 compared with national levels of 5.83,” Mr Black said.

“This coupled with the region's low level of mortgage and rent rates makes it one of the top two or three most fortunate areas nationally to see out the recession.”

He said the most likely reasons for the region's buoyancy were its low number of migrants - nine out of 10 residents here are Australian-born, compared with seven out of 10 nationally - and its agricultural and natural resources base.

“Migrants have been one of the hardest hit employment groups nationally,” Mr Black said.

“Agriculture remains stable, although it may not offer the most highly paid income.”

According to ADS figures, other areas rivalling our performance were traditional blue-chip sanctuaries like Sydney's wealthy eastern suburbs, the ACT and Melbourne's Mornington Peninsula.

“The Downs is doing damn well. Incomes might not be high but it's economically stable.”