HEALTHY growth in jobs revealed in the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics Census data offers some insight into the true face of our region. The release of the 2021 data this week revealed health care and social assistance jobs were now one in six of those in the Hunter, but it was far from good news across the board.
The numbers also lay bare the decline in manufacturing in the region, with the number of employees in that sector falling from 26,146 to 18,280 in the decade since 2011. While the NSW Labor party that now holds government has made noise about building trains and other infrastructure recently brought from overseas onshore, the dwindling in the workforce ready to start such tasks must be addressed too.
