In my last Friday livestream, I mentioned surging job vacancies across Queensland (and in many parts of the rest of Australia, too). Vacancies are at record levels in four out of seven Queensland regions (see the chart below using National Skills Commission data) – Central Queensland, Far North Queensland, and the Outback being the exceptions.

Of course, job vacancies were most likely higher in the early part of last decade for Central Queensland and the Outback due to the resources boom, and FNQ would have benefited back then from an influx of foreign (largely Chinese) tourists. Those facts probably help explain why those regions are not currently at record levels of vacancies. It’s probable that vacancies would be much higher in FNQ if COVID-related border restrictions were removed. As for the Gold Coast, border restrictions are no doubt adversely affecting many local businesses, but thankfully the broadly-based regional economy appears to have proven highly resilient.

Below I present charts of the numbers of vacancies by major occupation groups by region. Professional jobs are dominating across all regions. Note that hospitality workers are included in the Technicians and Trades Worker category, along with construction workers and hairdressers, among other occupations, in the National Skills Commission data.

Brisbane

Central Queensland

Far North Queensland

Outback Queensland

Gold Coast

Sunshine Coast

Toowoomba and South West

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