May 13, 2014
The South Burnett Regional Council’s latest Economic Development Brief shows the region’s Gross Regional Product for 2012-13 was $2 billion.
The brief, to December 2013, was released yesterday by South Burnett Regional Council Economic Development Manager Phil Harding and was prepared by Lawrence Consulting, from Toowoomba.
The brief shows the regional economy grew in real terms by 8.7 per cent, significantly higher than the rate for Queensland, which was 3.6 per cent.
The dependence of the region on the Tarong and Tarong North power stations, the adjacent Meandu coal mine and other mining activities is reflected in the GRP breakdown.
The mining industry experienced the highest annual increase in contribution to the Gross Regional Product (GRP), up 13.4 per cent, followed by health care and social assistance (up 12.5 per cent).
Administrative and support services, wholesale trade and retail also showed growth.
Mining is now the South Burnett’s largest industry, contributing 12.6 per cent of the total GRP, outpacing agriculture, forestry and fishing which contributes just 10.8 per cent.
Electricity, gas, water and waste services was almost as large as agriculture, contributing 9.3 per cent.
However agriculture is the largest industry in terms of business numbers, accounting for 42.8 per cent of the total businesses in the region.
The estimated local turnover of all local industry in the South Burnett was estimated to be $951.4 million in 2011-12 (up 5.9 per cent).
The average turnover of all businesses was about $290,200 (up 5.5 per cent).
While the economy grew, unemployment also increased.
The estimated number of employed persons in the South Burnett fell by 2.8 per cent in the September quarter of 2013, an annual drop of 4.4 per cent over same quarter in 2012.
The participation rate (ie the number of the residents in the labour force) also fell by 0.8 per cent to 60.3 per cent in 2012 – 7.1 per cent lower than for Queensland as a whole.
The unemployment rate hit 7.5 per cent in the September quarter 2013, its highest level since December 2004.
The annual decrease in employed persons contributed to a fall of 2.7 per cent in the size of the labour force to about 15,793 people in the September quarter 2013 while the number of unemployed rose annually by 24.1 per cent.
The ratio of “economically dependent” to “productive” residents, ie the “dependency ratio”, was 67.2 per cent in 2012, significantly higher than the State average of 49.7 per cent.
- Download the full South Burnett Economic Brief here (1.11Mb PDF)
