The Hunter Valley Research Foundation’s latest findings, predicting further job losses among coal miners and skilled workers, will understandably send shivers throughout the Maitland community.
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The foundation – a highly respected body – pulled no punches in stating that the Hunter’s official unemployment rate of 5.1 per cent was artifically low, with the real figure likely to be as high as 6.5 per cent and growing.
Figures of this magnitude are of concern, but they fail to tell the whole picture. Behind every unemployed coal miner or skilled worker is likely to be a family – a spouse and children who are dependent on the primary breadwinner. And for every income that dries up, the flow-on impact across the community is multiplied.
While it will be a case of “battening down the hatches” for the next six months, the prospects are somewhat brighter for 2014.
Thankfully, there are already signs of hope. Multi-national mining firm Joy Global is on target to open its Hunter Valley headquarters at Rutherford by November.
This project has provided a most welcome fillip for the Maitland economy during the construction phase and once complete, will be home to some 150 workers. This, of course, will be offset by the completion of the Hunter Expressway in coming months which will see many workers – and their families – pack their bags and leave town in search of a new construction project.
As one project comes to an end, another one is set to begin. Maitland’s new hospital – once the site is finally selected – will help fill in the gap left by the expressway.
Mining is not the only industry to be experiencing job losses and overall belt-tightening. The media industry, for example, is facing its own challenges.
One thing is for certain. All eyes will be on the region’s federal candidates in the lead-up to the election for any signs of life that they may be able to inject into the economy.