Every month, the RAI analyses the latest jobs vacancy figures to find out what’s being advertised around the country in regional areas, the types of jobs needing to be filled and the trends that are emerging in our cities and towns.
This month, we took a good look at regional Queensland, which now has one in three vacancies. Across the Sunshine State, more than 3,200 vacancies were in the professional category. This includes jobs such as doctors, nurses, engineers, finance workers, human resource managers, engineers, educational professionals, sales and marketing managers.
To break it down even further, the table below looks at each of the six different regions of regional Queensland (according to Federal Government classifications).
| Area |
No. of jobs in August 2019 |
Top 3 job vacancies |
| Central Queensland |
2328 |
Professionals (547) – Medical Practitioners and Nurses, Health Diagnostic, Therapy Professionals, legal and social welfare.Technicians and trades workers (459) – automotive and engineering trades, food trade workers. Labourers (309) |
| Far North Queensland |
4642 |
Professionals (1025) – medical field professionals followed by engineers, health diagnostic therapy professionals and business finance.Technicians and trade workers (994) – Automotive and engineering trades, food trade workers.Clerical and Admin (587) |
| Gold Coast |
3385 |
Professionals (842) – medical practitioners and nurses, also business finance and HR.Clerical and administrative (576) – mainly for General-Inquiry Clerks, Call Centre Workers, and Receptionists.Technicians and trade workers (497) |
| Outback Queensland |
453 |
Professionals (135) – Medical Practitioners and Nurses, followed by engineers, and legal.Technicians and trades (95) – Automotive and Engineering Trades Workers.Machinery Operators (47) |
| Sunshine Coast |
1634 |
Professionals (396) – Carers and Aides, Medical Practitioners, and General Inquiry Clerks.Technicians and Trades (261).Community and Personal Service Workers (250). |
| Toowoomba and South West QLD |
1240 |
Professionals (285) – mostly medical practitioners and also business, finance and HR.Technicians and trades (227) – Automotive and Engineering Trades Workers.Clerical and Admin. (161) |
| Regional QLD Total |
13682 |
Internet vacancy growth rates have been highest in regions outside Queensland’s populous south-east. Over the last 12 months vacancies grew by 7.5% in Central Queensland, 6% in Outback Queensland and 5.6% in Far North Queensland. But population growth in recent years in these regions has been low at 0.3%, -1% and 0.7% respectively for 2017-18. The regions with vacancy growth are not getting the people they need. The story is the mirror image in the south-east where population growth was 1.5-2.4% over 2017-18 but vacancy numbers fell by 7-8% over the last 12 months.
Looking more broadly, throughout August, there were more than 46,000 jobs advertised in regional Australia. This is a 4.8% increase since August 2017.
The table below takes you through the figures for each state, and it’s interesting to note the increase in Tasmania, Western Australia and Victoria.
| Aug-17 |
Aug-19 |
% change between Aug-17 and Aug-19 |
| Regional Australia |
44356 |
46485 |
4.8% |
| Regional NSW (excludes Sydney) |
12159 |
12276 |
1.0% |
| Regional VIC (excludes Melbourne) |
5441 |
6056 |
11.3% |
| Regional QLD (excludes Brisbane) |
13984 |
13682 |
-2.2% |
| Regional SA (excludes Adelaide) |
915 |
978 |
6.8% |
| TAS |
1494 |
1880 |
25.8% |
| Regional WA (excludes Perth) |
2958 |
3540 |
19.7% |
| NT |
2003 |
1881 |
-6.1% |
| ACT |
5402 |
6192 |
14.6% |
To find out more details, you can click on the RAI’s Regional Job Vacancy Map, which shows you all the categories of jobs in each region.