Jobs still hard to come by

Swan Hill’s employment rate may be higher than the national average but job vacancies remains low.

Altus Employment Services’ Swan Hill manager Katrina Lawry described job availability as “fairly low” at the moment.

“There are a lot of people in town looking for work in all sorts of jobs,” she said.

“Job seekers are struggling to find work in all sectors, from unskilled positions to trades to professional positions with higher qualifications.

“It all really comes down to what businesses are looking for and how busy they are.”

The most recent local statistics from June 2016 show that Swan Hill’s unemployment rate is at 5.1 per cent.

Statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released last week show that the national full-time unemployment rate was 5.7 per cent.

Although Swan Hill’s unemployment rate is lower than the national total, nevertheless it had steadily risen since March 2013 when it was at 3.6 per cent.

To read more about this story, grab a copy of Monday’s Guardian (January 23).