May 13, 2021
Toowoomba Mayor Paul Antonio has welcomed a fall in the region’s unemployment figures, including a large drop in the youth unemployment rate.
Mayor Antonio said the Toowoomba statistical area’s March unemployment rate of 5 per cent was the lowest of the 19 areas across Queensland. It compares with Toowoomba’s most recent unemployment figures of 5.4 per cent in February and 5.8 per cent in January.
The Queensland average was 7.3 per cent for March.
Mayor Antonio said the March youth unemployment rate of 13 per cent was down 8.5 per cent over the past year and well down on the September 2020 peak of 27.2 per cent.
The Queensland average for March was 15.5 per cent.
“The other encouraging aspect is that the Toowoomba youth unemployment rate had the largest percentage point decrease across all 19 Queensland statistical areas,” Mayor Antonio said.
“The Toowoomba youth unemployment rate is now the seventh lowest across Queensland and has fallen below the average Queensland youth unemployment rate for two consecutive months now, the first time that has happened since August 2019.
“The Toowoomba area has seen the largest annual growth in employment across Queensland’s 19 statistical areas in March 2021 with an additional 11,800 people employed, which equates to 18.7 per cent growth over the year.
“The State figure was a decrease of 1.1 per cent over the same time.
“The participation rate in Toowoomba in December 2020 was 61.6 per cent, which is an increase of 9.1 per cent over the year.”
