Working from home has become increasingly popular among Central Coast workers with latest data showing a decrease in people commuting to Sydney and an increase in those using co-working hubs.
According to Opal Card data collected by See-Change Analytics, 66 per cent fewer people travelled on the Central Coast train line this October compared to last.
See-change Analytics founder Patrick Spedding said this decrease in commuters is reinforced by a corresponding drop in Gosford CBD parking, which was also down over 65% year over year for October.
“Similarly, the M1 traffic count data from Transport for NSW shows, while traffic volumes have recovered from the April and May lockdown lows, average daily traffic counts are still down roughly 1,000 light vehicles per day, year over year,” Spedding said.
“The reduction is less than might be expected; however, this can be explained by the shift by many commuters from public transport to the car, driven by COVID concerns.”
Member for Gosford, Liesl Tesch, also commented on the trend at a Future of Work webinar hosted by Central Coast Newspapers on November 30.
Among the approximately 400 commuters she surveyed, 69 per cent were not happy working in company offices, while 79 per cent were happy working from home.
There was a 10 per cent drop in the number of 20 to 29-year-olds happy working from home, which Tesch said could be attributed to their potential lack of available at-home working spaces.
Tesch also addressed a recent survey by The Public Sector Association (PSA), showing flexible work as women’s top priority.
“We are shifting the concept from work from home into the concept of flexible work because realistically my respondents, the PSA respondents and the Deloitte survey respondents indicate they want a mixture of some working in the town and some at home,” Tesch said.
Through analysing credit card spends, Spedding said retail spend by Central Coast residents in Sydney (i.e. commuters) remains significantly down year over year.
“Interestingly, notwithstanding common perceptions regarding ‘people from Sydney who contribute enormously to the local economy’, the retail spend data shows Sydney resident credit cards currently contribute around 2.5 per cent to the local economy (specifically ABS Statistical Area 2 Avoca Beach/Copacabana),” Spedding said.
“Whereas Central Coast resident credit cards account for between 65 to 75 per cent of the share of local retail spend.”
Nexus Smart Hub founder, Damien Wilde, and The Foundry Co-working Hub founder, Mel Archer, both explained their experience at the webinar.
Wilde started the five Nexus Smart Hubs around Sydney and Central Coast, six years ago in connection with the State Government.
The hubs were designed to attract commuters, but initially, he said, small businesses used them the most.
“The trend of commuters using the hub has gotten better from where we were six years ago, but I think the whole COVID experience has accelerated that and will continue to accelerate it,” Wilde said.
“A lot of commuters wanted to work from these hubs, but a lot of the middle management was not confident in how productive they would be working remotely.”
Archer from The Foundry said she had seen a dramatic increase in people using the co-working space.
“Since COVID, I think half of the membership in here are commuters, whereas before I think I had one or two, so there has been a big shift,” Archer said.
“Previous to COVID, employers were resisting the remote work idea even though commuters were really wanting it.
“So it is kind of nice that it has been forced on them and they have been forced to embrace it in some ways.
“I think now employers are looking at ways to support and optimise these spaces, with a lot of them funding co-working spaces as well.
“I think this is something that will continue to happen as the CBD force base is reduced, and more satellite offices will start popping up in co-working home spaces.”
Jacinta Counihan