Illawarra’s employment boom

The Illawarra has been a quiet achiever with one of the highest rates of job growth over the past five years. According the recent stats from the ABS the number of jobs in the region has grown by 17% in the five years to Aug 2016, with a healthy 9% growth in the past year alone.

This growth in job numbers outstrips the growth observed in Greater Sydney, which saw 9% growth over the past five years, and 3% growth in the past year.

The Illawarra’s jobs growth is a stand out regional performer across the state, alongside the Central Coast. This strong economic performance in these satellite cities underscores the potential they can play in supporting the growth of Sydney by providing a self-sustaining population, interlinked businesses and industries, within a commutable distance of a major city.

The growth of these areas reflects the appeal they offer of greater housing affordability, more space, beautiful environments, close proximity to local jobs and services, whilst also maintaining close links to Sydney. Agglomeration economics explains that already concentrated populations tend to grow faster because they have larger markets, more high quality human capital, and more infrastructure that facilitates economic interactions.

While the NSW Government has been looking to western Sydney for its priority growth centre, businesses and people have been flowing to the coastal towns and hour north and south. It is time the government followed suit and committed to investment in infrastructure which would facilitate greater growth in these regional centres that offer the lifestyle and environmental amenity which people and businesses alike are drawn to. 

Given the strong job growth already being demonstrated, providing Infrastructure that delivers faster connectivity between coastal satellite cities and Sydney would provide more affordable housing and further support the economic growth across this growing network of cities.