The latest Bureau of Statistics unemployment figures show 7.6 per cent of residents in the 2256 and 2257 postcode areas were unemployed, according to Member for Gosford Ms Liesl Tesch.
“In the six years that the Liberals have been in power in New South Wales, local unemployment has gone up 1.2 per cent while it has dropped on average for the rest of the state,” she said.
“When Labor left office youth unemployment was 11.6 per cent, it is appalling to think that has jumped 6.3 per cent in six years to 17.9 per cent.” Ms Tesch said.
“That’s one per cent for every year of the Liberal Government.”
“We now have the second highest rate of youth unemployment in the state, when in 2011 we were below average.”
According to Ms Tesch, the local community was falling behind the rest of the state with more people out of work now than when the Liberal Government came to power.
“When 1414 members of our small community are out of work, everyone feels it,” Ms Tesch said.
“Losing a job can devastate an individual or a family, and can have flow on effects to children and their schooling,” she said.
“I commend the work done by community groups on the Peninsula to support those locals who are out of work, but the Government needs to do more to stimulate growth in the region,” she said.
SOURCE:
Media release, 30 Oct 2017
Richard Mehrtens, Office of Liesl Tesch MP