Newcastle has a record number of people in work and the jobless rate has fallen to 3 per cent.
New Australian Bureau of Statistics labour force figures show an estimated 210,000 people were in work in Newcastle and Lake Macquarie last month, 23,000 more than in June last year.
The previous record of 207,000 was set in December 2021, just before the city was swamped by its first COVID-19 omicron outbreak.
The city's unemployment rate of 3.0 per cent is 0.3 points below the NSW jobless figure, which is the lowest in 48 years, and 0.5 points below the national rate.
The youth jobless rate, for those aged 15 to 24, was 5.7 per cent in Newcastle and 8 per cent across the Hunter in June, down from 12.9 per cent a year ago.
Another 7000 young people were in work across the region compared with June 2021.
Business Hunter chief executive Bob Hawes said the youth unemployment figures were encouraging.
"That is certainly promising to see young people embedding themselves in employment, and it's something we do hope maintains a trend pattern because we need to capitalise on this trend to help stave off the economic headwinds that are approaching," he said.
The workforce participation rate, which measures the proportion of people either in work or looking for a job, rose to a near-record 68.7 per cent in Newcastle in June as the total labour force swelled to a new high of 216,500.
The number of jobs advertised online in the Hunter is three times higher than it was in mid-2020.
The National Skills Commission's three-month moving average of internet job advertisements in the region has ballooned beyond 6000 in the past four months, after passing 5000 for the first time in April last year and sitting at just above 2000 in the early months of the pandemic.
"We've still got business searching madly for workers, and we need to address this quickly," Mr Hawes said.
"We'll be constrained by this unless we continue to push up participation rates."
The Hunter jobs numbers are consistent with a Business NSW survey last month which showed 93 per cent of employers in the state were short on workers.
The business lobby group has called on the new Labor federal government to increase vocational education and training funding, extend its apprenticeship booster program and increase skilled migrant numbers.
The ABS's labour force numbers for the rest of the Hunter, outside Newcastle, were less spectacular.
The number of employed people in June was relatively stable at 130,000, the jobless rate 4.5 per cent and the participation rate 59 per cent.
