Youth unemployment in the Hunter has reached epidemic proportions with 20.6 per cent of people aged under 25 now searching for work.
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The alarming figures come courtesy of a less than buoyant mining industry the region has relied on for jobs for decades.
Employment experts that the Mercury spoke to this week said mining and its support industries were no longer the Hunter’s employment hotbed and people need to be funnelled into jobs in the big growth sectors of aged care, disability services and hospitality.
Maitland Business Chamber president and Hunter Recruitment Group owner/director Craig McGregor said the downturn in the mining industry had resulted in a changed market place where supply is greater than the demand for skilled workers looking for jobs.
He said employers have the option of putting on less experienced personnel and training them up, or running with the experienced applicants who now are willing to take lower pay rates after earning higher incomes in the mining industry.
Mr McGregor said employers were also weighing up the costs of training the inexperienced, or paying extra for skilled staff who they saw as long-term employees, therefore the supply of apprentices and entry level roles had diminished considerably during the past 12 months.
“As chamber president, we need to look at trying to get some form of government stimulus,” Mr McGregor said.
“Where’s our next big infrastructure spend to get people a start?
“We had the Hunter Expressway, which led to great jobs and now that’s finished we have to look at where the big areas of demand are and I believe that’s aged care and disability services,” he said. “The mining boom is over.”
Mr McGregor said hospitality, retail, the service industry in general are also on the up.
“Fifty years ago young kids living in the Hunter would aim for careers in mining and agriculture. Fast forward to today and those two options have diminished dramatically.”
He said the region was also losing a large chunk of its youth to Sydney, where they further themselves from a skills perspective.
This cycle is similar to what occurred in 1996 with the closure of BHP.
“I graduated in 1997 and I couldn’t get a start anywhere in human resources so I had to move away and gain skills before I was fortunate enough to return home,” Mr McGregor said.
