The number of job seekers on the Central Coast decreased in October by 1,017.
This leaves 18,868 people receiving the JobSeeker supplement, with those receiving Youth Allowance taking the figure to 21,404.
Data received by Data Analytics company, See-Change, also shows job vacancies on the Central Coast has been slowly rising since July, with 1440 positions now available.
As of October, this makes the JobSeeker/Youth allowance per job vacancy rate 15 to 1, a significant drop since the peak of COVID in May which was 36 to 1.
Founder of See-Change, Patrick Spedding, said the overall number of Jobseeker payments is still highest in Gosford, Woy Woy, Umina and North Central Coast (Charmhaven, The Entrance).
“The highest proportion of JobSeeker/Youth Allowance recipients as a percentage of population is in The Entrance and Wyong (9.4%),” he said.
The occupations which have seen an increase in job vacancies are labourers, trades workers and sales assistants.
“Conversely, ICT professionals, engineers, medical practitioners and managers all remain down year over year,” Spedding said.
“Payroll jobs data shows a significant dip early October, possibly driven by the decrease in the JobKeeper rate.
“However payroll jobs appear to be picking back up, particularly in the north Central Coast (old Wyong LGA).”
Jacinta Counihan