CONNECTING OUR GREAT SMALL CITIES · 2016. 12. 2. · INTRODUCING THE 5 SPOTLIGHT CITIES MEASURING...

COVER PAGE

Intro paragraph

CONNECTINGOUR GREATSMALL CITIES

NOVEMBER 2016

The Regional Australia Institute and LinkedIn have teamed up to shine a spotlight on five regional cities.

Using the Regional Australia Institute’s Great Small Cities data and LinkedIn’s data on its member networks we can start to measure emerging skills trends in real time.

We can identify the current skills position of each city through the mix of internal and external connections, industry and skills strengths, mobility of skilled workers, and the skill needs that are emerging.

Overall this work is showing that traditional industries are still vital to regional economies, but the same trends shaping the economies of our capital cities – namely the rise of the knowledge economy and the importance of digital skills – are very much present in our regional cities.

Our regional cities are intimately connected to these trends, and mapping each city’s skills pathway is crucial to understanding how to influence their economic future.

5 REGIONAL CITIES

TOWNSVILLE|QLD

SUNSHINE COAST - NOOSA|QLD

GREATER NEWCASTLE|NSW

LAUNCESTON|TAS

GREATER WOLLONGONG NSW

2CONNECTING OUR GREAT SMALL CITIES | NOVEMBER 2016

http://www.regionalaustralia.org.au/home/

https://www.linkedin.com/

http://www.regionalaustralia.org.au/home/great-small-cities-data-tool/

The way we collect most data means that we cannot see an economic trend until years after it has been established. The Regional Australia Institute (RAI) and LinkedIn have partnered with the aim of identifying changes in local economies in real time. Through this partnership we are able to see evidence of emerging ‘new economies’ in our five spotlight cities: Townsville, Sunshine Coast-Noosa, Greater Newcastle, Wollongong and Launceston.

Previous work by the Regional Australia Institute identified that connectivity is one of the aspects of a city that will help it to grow and succeed. Connectivity enables the flow of people and ideas between cities.

In our five spotlight cities between 28 and 39 per cent of the working age population in each city are LinkedIn members, giving a large sample size to work with.

Overall, the average number of connections per member increases with the size of the city. But Sunshine Coast-Noosa is the exception to this as it is the most connected of the five spotlight cities despite being only the second largest. Almost 39 per cent of the working age population are LinkedIn members, and it also has the highest number of connections per member on average (90).

Greater Newcastle has the strongest internal links, with 31per cent of member connections within the region, while Sunshine Coast-Noosa has the strongest international links with 25 per cent of member connections with people overseas.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYEach city has its own unique flavor, however there are some definite similarities as well. The top two skills in all of the spotlight cities are healthcare management and IT infrastructure & system management.

The availability of IT skills are firstly a nod to each city’s ability to attract and retain highly skilled individuals and also the importance of digital skills in the workforce. Strength in healthcare management is not surprising considering the current ageing trend and the preference of older people to live in large centres later in life.

Education and training consistently came in as the 3rd or 4th most common skills for all five spotlight cities. Each city has at least one university campus, vocational training providers and a number of primary and secondary schools in the area, which accounts for the popularity of the skill.

The remaining two spots are where we start to see some more local flavor. Greater Newcastle for example has lean manufacturing & quality management as its fifth top skill. Historically manufacturing has been a core component of the local economy and continues to be a significant employer to this day. In contrast, ecology & environmental science appears in Townsville’s top five skills which reflects the number of people employed in tropics research, especially at James Cook University.

Turning our attention to skills with high mobility and current skill shortages there is a clear emphasis on both soft and hard skills. Tech savvy ‘hard’ skills like coding

CONNECTING OUR GREAT SMALL CITIES | NOVEMBER 2016 3

and development are in short supply. Social media marketing is a skill set showing high levels of mobility. The ‘softer’ skills particularly managerial skills (for example business development & relationship management, and recruiting) are also proving highly mobile.

Overall the skills highlighted in this work are typically associated with the ‘new economy’ and the knowledge and service industries rather than more traditional industries. This reflects both the membership of LinkedIn, and, as seen in other RAI work on regional cities, the growth of these industries in modern city economies. Employment statistics for each of these cities show that while traditional industries remain core components of the economy, they are by no means the whole picture.

The five spotlight cities were selected to showcase the breadth of regional cities. They were selected from the Regional Australia Institute’s 31 Great Small Cities. These cities have a population of more than 50,000 people and have diverse and resilient economies.

The spotlight cities range in size from a little under 92,000 (Launceston) to more than 573,000 people (Greater Newcastle). They cover three states (Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania) and include both coastal and inland cities.

To ensure the quality of our data, in each of the selected cities approximately 30 per cent of their working age population had to have a LinkedIn profile.

INTRODUCING THE 5 SPOTLIGHT CITIES

MEASURING THE SPOTLIGHT CITIESLinkedIn membership dataLinkedIn operates the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 467 million members in over 200 countries and territories. By joining the site, members gain access to other professionals, potential jobs, news, updates and insights from their networks. By looking at data on LinkedIn’s current membership in a particular area we can spot in real-time the emerging job trends and opportunities in that regional economy.

LinkedIn membership data provides a sample of the professional population in each city. LinkedIn’s data includes a balance of professional and technical skills and good coverage of industries that is not limited to professional sectors, with the mix of member skills and industries showing clear parallels with each city’s current industry mix.

Networks in regional Australia Connectivity is essential for small cities to succeed and grow. Looking at current LinkedIn connections in the five spotlight cities we can identify the current strength and stretch of a region’s networks. Connections are based on the locations of the people that individual members living in these cities are connected to.

Top skillsTop skills are the most common skills on members’ LinkedIn profiles in the city. This gives us a deeper insight into the economy beyond the traditional occupation or industry mix.


http://www.regionalaustralia.org.au/home/our-current-work/great-small-cities/

Mobile skillsMobile skills measure the most common skills of workers who have moved jobs in the last 12 months. A more mobile workforce is important for ensuring that skilled people can locate themselves where the jobs are. Mobility is a combination of both employment growth (filling new jobs) and employment churn (replacing people in existing jobs).

Current shortages By looking at the skill profiles of workers who are most contacted by recruiter outreach we can identify the skills that are most in demand. Based on these skills we can draw conclusions about current shortages and the new industries that are emerging in the city’s economy. This data is not available for Launceston and Townsville, due to their smaller sample sizes.

GREAT SMALL CITIES DATA The Regional Australia Institute’s Great Small Cities data tool is an interactive data visualisation tool that allows users to explore and compare the 31 Great Small Cities.

The data included in the tool is drawn from a variety of sources and includes residential and workforce population, gross value added, education levels, measures of employment diversity, housing affordability and Bohemian Index score.

In this report we have drawn on some of the data in this tool to complement the information from LinkedIn member profiles.




TOWNSVILLE

POPULATION: ~ 204,000 WORKING AGE POPULATION:132,393 (39,000 LinkedIn members)

KEY FACTS:Post-mining boom transition to a more diverse economyLARGEST EMPLOYERS:

connections in the region

international connections

CONNECTIONS

75 29%

20%

TOP 5 CONNECTION LOCATIONS1. Townsville Area 2. Brisbane Area 3. Sydney Area 4. Melbourne Area5. Queensland

TOP INTERNATIONAL13. Papua New Guinea

Mining& Metals

Construction FinancialServices

IT RealEstate

PER MEMBER

TOP 5 SKILLS1. IT Infrastructure and System Management 2. Healthcare Management3. Process and Project Management 4. Education and Teaching 5. Ecology and Environmental Science

SKILLS WITH THE HIGHEST MOBILITY

Recruiting Business Development & Relationship Management

Management & Leadership

T

Health Public adminand safety

Retail

TOP 5 CONNECTED INDUSTRIES

Townsville is a city in transition. New skills and industries are beginning to emerge, however, more traditional industries still form the base of the economy.

Townsville today Townsville is a city in transition. It is working to establish itself as the capital of the North and building a more diverse economy to combat the long-term cycles that are prevalent in mining-related economies. The future of Northern Australia has been discussed extensively over the last few years, and Townsville sees itself as a fundamental part of this picture. This is partly because of its size, but also due to its connections to Asia and the servicing role it plays with surrounding regions.

With a population of approximately 204,000 people, Townsville is the second smallest of the five cities but had the highest population growth rate between 2011 and 2016 at 14.3 per cent.

Townsville grew rapidly during the recent mining boom and is expected to continue to see growth in the future, albeit at a slower pace. Townsville’s leaders are pushing to increase economic diversity to inject more stability into the economy and population.

Looking at the largest employers in the city we can clearly see some diversity already. Retail, public administration (especially defence), and healthcare are the largest employers. Each of these industries comprises more than 10 per cent of employment.

Traditional industries of manufacturing and mining are slowing. Currently mining only accounts for 2.9 per cent of employment in Townsville, while manufacturing makes up 7.6 per cent.

TOWNSVILLETownsville identifies the current low levels of employment in the creative and information, communications & technology (ICT) industries as a weakness in the economy. Townsville has the lowest score of the five cities on a measure of creative and cultural diversity, the Bohemian Index.1 Employment in the information media & telecommunications industry, however, is about the same in all of the five cities.

Despite the presence of two universities in the city, Townsville (along with Greater Newcastle) has the lowest proportion of its population with a bachelor degree or above (11.1 per cent). Although there is only a one percentage point difference between all five cities the proportion is considerably lower than Greater Brisbane, for example, at 17 per cent.

Retaining highly skilled people, even during downturns in mining, is a big priority for Townsville.

Comparing the low percentage of owner managers with the high number of business entries, it is likely that Townsville’s ability to retain larger companies is helping to drive its growth and Townsville is looking to balance this through increased entrepreneurship and innovation.

Current skills and availabilityOf the more than 132,000 working age people in Townsville, 39,000 are LinkedIn members (29.5 per cent). On average, Townsville members have 75 connections each, the second lowest of the five spotlight cities. Comparatively a large proportion (29 per cent) of these connections are with other people located within the city, followed by connections with people in Brisbane (16 per cent).

1 The bohemian index measures a location’s share of the nation’s employment in creative industries


A total of 20 per cent of the connections are with people currently located overseas. The country with the largest number of connections with members in Townsville is Papua New Guinea (0.9 per cent) – reflecting the professional, education and health links with that country. Just 0.4 per cent of the connections are with Singapore – home to Townsville’s international defence links and a campus of James Cook University (JCU).

Looking at the top skills in Townsville overall, the data is showing the emergence of some new industries, building on the more traditional industries which form a strong base for the economy. Mining and construction are in the top five industries in which Townsville members work, alongside financial services, IT and real estate.

Like all five spotlight cities, IT infrastructure & systems and healthcare management are the most common skills. The other top skills are process & project management, education & teaching, and ecology & environmental science. These last two are likely driven by the staff of the local tertiary institutions with JCU, Central Queensland University, CSIRO and the Australian Institute of Marine Science all located in Townsville with a focus on ecology and environmental science.

Recruiting, business development & relationship management, and management & leadership are the three skills with the highest mobility. High mobility is indicative of demand through both growth (new jobs) and churn (high worker turnover rates).

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR TOWNSVILLE?Townsville’s economic transition is clear from the LinkedIn data – the city has strengths in employment in the boom time industries of mining, construction and real estate, as well as the knowledge industries IT and financial services.

Townsville’s professional links are strongly focused on Townsville itself and Brisbane, with much lower percentages of connections with other Australian capitals and overseas. It is important for the city’s future growth that these connections are expanded to ensure they are a source of external engagement and investment for longer term economic development.

The skills showing the most mobility in the city are in business development, recruitment, management & leadership. This combination is potentially a sign of a growing economy as employers look to build business development and leadership capability to support business growth.


SUNSHINE COAST-NOOSA

POPULATION: > 350, 000WORKING AGE POPULATION:211,067 (82,000 LinkedIn members)

KEY FACTS:Lifestyle destinationRebuilding itself as a Smart City

LARGEST EMPLOYERS:



CONNECTIONS

90 17%

25%

TOP 5 CONNECTION LOCATIONS1. Brisbane Area 2. Queensland 3. Sydney 4. Melbourne Area 5. Perth Area

TOP INTERNATIONAL9. London, United Kingdom

Construction RealEstate

IT Health &Wellness

Financial Services

PER MEMBER

TOP 5 SKILLS1. Healthcare Management 2. IT Infrastructure and System Management 3. Education and Teaching 4. Graphical Design 5. Management and Leadership


S

Health Retail Construction


Sunshine-Coast Noosa is a fast growing coastal lifestyle destination on track to build a strong base in the knowledge economy.

Social Media Marketing

Software Engineering Management &

Requirements Gathering

Administrative & Office Management

Sunshine Coast-Noosa today With a growing population of more than 350,000 and only 100km away from Brisbane, Sunshine Coast-Noosa is a regional city located on the coast of South East Queensland. Between 2011 and 2016 the population grew by 13.1 per cent making it the second fastest growing city of the five.

Its prime location and reputation as a holiday destination means that Sunshine Coast-Noosa has a high number of domestic and international visitors every year. Consequently it has the highest level of employment in accommodation and food services in the five spotlight cities. More traditional industries continue to drive the economy and health, retail and construction are the biggest employers in the region. Sunshine Coast-Noosa is, however, moving beyond being just a holiday, lifestyle and retirement destination. It is transforming itself into a Smart City, with entrepreneurs, innovation and IT helping to grow the local economy.

There is already a strong entrepreneurial culture in Sunshine Coast-Noosa with 21 per cent of the workforce being owner-managers, by far the highest proportion of any of the five cities.

Sunshine Coast-Noosa also has the highest levels of business dynamo. Business dynamo is the Regional Australia Institute’s new measure of the business side of innovation. It measures levels of innovation in the economy including new businesses, trade mark applications and presence of knowledge-intensive business services.

SUNSHINE COAST-NOOSATo complement innovation activity, Sunshine Coast-Noosa also has a strong creative side, with the highest score on the Bohemian Index of the five cities.

The cost of housing in Sunshine Coast-Noosa is significantly higher than in the other four cities. The average couple aged 35-44 years would buy a house with a little under 4 and a half years’ annual household income. The percentage of workers earning above $104,000 is also comparatively low at just below 5 per cent. High housing costs are likely influenced by factors including high levels of population growth, close proximity to the water and the large older population.

Current skills and availability82,000 people in Sunshine Coast-Noosa are LinkedIn members, this is a little under 40 per cent of the working age population – by far the largest proportion of any of the spotlight cities. Sunshine Coast-Noosa also has the highest number of connections (90) per member.

Looking at the types of connections, Sunshine Coast-Noosa is very outward looking compared to the other cities. Only 17 per cent of member connections are located within the region. The largest portion of member connections are typically located in Brisbane (25.3 per cent). A similar portion are overseas connections (25 per cent) with London being the most common international location.

This external focus is not surprising considering the emerging culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in the Sunshine Coast-Noosa. Members do need to ensure, however, that this does not mean they are losing touch with what is happening locally.


WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR SUNSHINE COAST-NOOSA?This growing city has a dynamic, connected small business base with rich external links, especially overseas to London. While this external focus is good for growth – it also needs to be balanced with deeper local connections to ensure internally generated growth and strong local supply chains.

The diverse economy is reflected by a wide range of skills common across the workforce, but the skills currently in demand are more narrowly focused around IT and digital content. Comparing the skills with high mobility in Sunshine Coast-Noosa with those in Townsville we can see that Sunshine Coast-Noosa is further ahead in its transition into more of a ‘new economy’. Sunshine Coast-Noosa could be described as needing more of the ‘doers’ (IT & digital skills) rather than the planners or strategists (management & leadership and business development) that show high mobility in Townsville.

Looking at the top five skills for Sunshine Coast-Noosa there is a blend of skills ranging from healthcare and education to IT, management and leadership. As the second largest of the five spotlight cities, Sunshine Coast-Noosa has a high level of diversity in its economy that is well reflected in the top skills.

This level of diversity is not as clear in skills with high mobility or current shortages. Both of these are clearly focused around IT and digital content – pointing to high demand for these skills in the region. Priority skills include social media marketing, software engineering (high mobility) and .NET & other Microsoft application development, database management and user interfaces (skill shortages).

The similarities between these two lists suggest that the skills with the highest mobility, in addition to being skills with high turnover, also have high levels of demand.


GREATER NEWCASTLE

POPULATION: > 573, 000WORKING AGE POPULATION:364,087 (105,000 LinkedIn members)

KEY FACTS:5 Local Government Areas (LGAs)Strong manufacturing baseFast growing services sector

LARGEST EMPLOYERS:



CONNECTIONS

87 31%

18%

TOP 5 CONNECTION LOCATIONS1. Newcastle Area2. Sydney Area 3. Melbourne Area 4. Brisbane Area 5. New South Wales


Mining & Metals

Construction IT Financial Services

Real Estate

PER MEMBER

TOP 5 SKILLS1. IT Infrastructure and System Management 2. Healthcare Management 3. Process and Project Management 4. Education and Teaching 5. Lean Manufacturing and Quality Management


GN

Health Retail Manufacturing


Greater Newcastle is a large city with mining and manufacturing specialisations, and expanding service industries.

Social Media Marketing

Digital & Online Design & Publishing

Digital & Online Marketing

Greater Newcastle today Greater Newcastle is a collection of five local government areas (Cessnock, Lake Macquarie, Maitland, Newcastle and Port Stephens). Located just 160kms from Sydney, Greater Newcastle can be found in the lower Hunter region on the mid-east coast of New South Wales.

Greater Newcastle has a total population of more than 573,000 people. Its growth rate has been relatively conservative at 9.2 per cent (2011-2016) compared to the high growth areas like the Sunshine Coast and Townsville (13.1 and 14.3 per cent respectively), but significantly higher than Launceston (6.4 per cent).

Population growth is expected to continue with Greater Newcastle predicted to be home to a little under 635,000 people by 2026.

In terms of population, Newcastle is the largest of the five local government areas that make up the city of Greater Newcastle.Newcastle was previously known as an industrial area, and home for BHP’s steelworks. Visiting the city now you can still see the importance of the industrial sector, particularly around the Port of Newcastle.

Today, manufacturing continues to be one of the largest employers. Of the five cities it also has the largest share of its population employed in mining (3.4 per cent). That said, a significant proportion of the local workforce is employed in the service sector. Health and retail are the two largest employers, accounting for 25 per cent of the workforce.

GREATER NEWCASTLE Further inland, Greater Newcastle includes areas known for farming and vineyards, as well as coal mining and electricity generation.

Like Wollongong, Greater Newcastle has a relatively high proportion of its workforce earning above $104,000 p.a., but if housing price is any indication, living costs are reasonably affordable. Greater Newcastle sits in the middle of the five cities for housing affordability. It costs the average 35-44 year old couple about three years’ annual income to buy a house in Greater Newcastle.

The Bohemian Index score is comparatively low in Greater Newcastle compared to the other four cities at just below 0.28. This is due to the diversity in the economies of each of the local government areas that make up Greater Newcastle. Looking at just Newcastle City the Bohemian Index score is much higher at 0.45, while the remaining four local government areas score less than 0.25. Boosting creativity and innovation is a priority for the city, and it is a key objective in Newcastle’s Community Strategic Plan 2016-2019.

Current skills and availabilityGreater Newcastle is the second most connected of the five spotlight cities, with 87 connections per member. Unlike the highly connected Sunshine Coast-Noosa, Great Newcastle is much more inward looking with 31 per cent of member connections located within the region. As a comparison, only 18 per cent of member connections are based overseas. Much like Townsville, traditional industries like mining and construction are the most connected industries.


WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR GREATER NEWCASTLE?Greater Newcastle is in transition, with strengths in the traditional industries of mining and construction alongside current demand for digital skills. LinkedIn members are generally well connected, but connections are mainly inward looking with a low percentage of overseas connections.

While there is a variety of old and new economy industries seeking a range of skills, those with the highest mobility are purely digital, and those currently in demand are finance related.

To deliver on new growth and ideas the city will need to see its workforce networks expand to be more externally focused, especially in the new economy industries of health, finance and other services.

Comparing top skills with highly mobile and in demand skills reveals an interesting divide.

We see a mix of traditional and service industries in the top five most common industries. Greater Newcastle is the only area with manufacturing (lean manufacturing & quality management) appearing in the top five. This is despite the presence of a sizeable manufacturing industry in a number of the other cities. The skills with the highest mobility, however, are purely digital. These include social media marketing, digital and online design and publishing, as well as digital and online marketing. The emphasis on digital could have as much to do with a high turnover of staff as it does with local demand.

Different again is the mix of identified skill shortages. Two out of the three skills currently being sought are finance related (tax and financial planning). The third is .NET and other Microsoft application development.


GREATER WOLLONGONG

POPULATION: 281, 100WORKING AGE POPULATION:180,451 (53,000 LinkedIn members)

KEY FACTS:Historically known for steel and coalShifting to a service economy

LARGEST EMPLOYERS:



CONNECTIONS

86 21%

22%

TOP 5 CONNECTION LOCATIONS1. Sydney Area2. Melbourne Area3. Brisbane Area4. Wollongong Area 5. Perth Area


IT Mining& Metals

FinancialServices

Construction Marketing& Advertising

PER MEMBER

TOP 5 SKILLS1. IT Infrastructure and System Management2. Healthcare Management 3. Education and Teaching4. Process and Project Management5. Management and Leadership


GW

HealthRetail


Greater Wollongong is working hard to create more local jobs, shedding its old image as an industrial town in favour of it being a lifestyle destination.

Manufacturing

RecruitingSocial Media Marketing

Retail StoreOperations

Greater Wollongong today Historically an industrial community, Greater Wollongong is known for steel and coal. Manufacturing is still a significant employer, but there has been a push recently into knowledge services. The impacts of this transition can be seen in the current spread of employment by industry. Manufacturing as a more traditional industry continues to have a strong presence, but so too do some service industries. The four largest employing industries are health care & social assistance, education & training, manufacturing and retail. Each of these industries accounts for 10 per cent of employment with the exception of health which sits at almost 13 per cent. Information, communications & technology (ICT) is a growing industry in Wollongong, and recent developments include NEC Australia (a leading ICT solutions and services firm) opening a new corporate office in the city.

Greater Wollongong includes the neighboring local government area of Shellharbour and has a total population of 281,100 people, positioning it in the middle of our five cities in terms of size. Its growth rate is roughly average at 8.9 per cent (2011-2016) compared to the high growth areas like the Sunshine Coast and Townsville (13 and 14.3 per cent respectively), but significantly higher than Launceston (6.4 per cent).

The city is predicted to continue to grow. The population is estimated to surpass 305,000 people by 2026. The large scale investments in the area will help to drive this growth but also support the growing population longer term. In the last 12 months more than $700

GREATER WOLLONGONG million worth of major developments have commenced or been completed in the city centre.

Lifestyle is an obvious factor attracting people to live in Wollongong, with beach access, breathtaking natural parks and Sydney about an hour away.

As a city in its own right, residents have access to a variety of services. Housing prices are at the slightly higher end of the scale compared to our other four cities. It costs an average 35-44 year old couple a little over 3 and a half years’ annual income to buy a house in Greater Wollongong. In nearby Greater Sydney it would cost this same couple more than 6 years’ annual income. Consequently many residents choose to live in Wollongong and commute to Sydney for work.

Sydney commuters are likely part of the reason why Wollongong has the highest proportion of employed persons with an annual income of more than $104,000 out of the five cities. Greater Wollongong also has the highest proportion of its populations with a bachelor degree or higher at 11.9 per cent. That said, all four of the other cities discussed have more than 11 per cent of their population with a bachelor degree or higher, so the difference between them is less than a percentage point.

The biggest challenge for Wollongong is its low workforce participation rate. Of all the five cities, Wollongong has the lowest participation rate at 71 per cent. Part of this could be students from the local university staying in the area while they look for work after graduation. It could also be proximity


to the coast, as there is a pattern of people either unemployed or out of the labour force choosing to live in coastal areas in Australia.

Wollongong City Council has identified the lack of jobs in the area as one of the big issues for the community, and one of goals of the Wollongong 2022 Strategic Plan is to increase local employment opportunities.

Wollongong 2022 identifies a local push for boosting creative industries but the Bohemian Index places them in the middle of the five cities with an index score of 0.32. “Bohemian” occupations are much more prevalent in Sunshine Coast-Noosa (index score of 0.46), but Wollongong City itself does well on this measure with a Bohemian Index score of 0.45 – just below that of Sunshine Coast-Noosa.

Current skills and availabilityLinkedIn members in Greater Wollongong have, on average, equal portions of their networks located in the region and internationally (21 and 22 per cent respectively). The vast majority of their networks are however located in Sydney (51.1 per cent), which is not surprising considering its close proximity.

In total 53,000 people from Greater Wollongong are LinkedIn members, out of a total working age population of just over 180,000.

IT infrastructure & system management is the top skill in Greater Wollongong. Compared to the other spotlight cities, Greater Wollongong has the largest proportion of its LinkedIn members with this skill at 6 per cent. IT is also the most connected industry.

Looking at the other top skills, there is again a strong emphasis on management skills (healthcare management, process & project management, and management & leadership). The final skill in the top five is education & training. This reflects the depth and breadth of education available in the Greater Wollongong area from primary through to vocational training and university.

There is quite a spread of skills with high mobility in Wollongong. The top three are social media & marketing, retail store operations, and recruiting. Greater Wollongong is the only spotlight city to have retail on this list, reflecting the typically high turnover of retail staff. As mentioned above, retail is one of the biggest employers in the city meaning there are likely to be a range of employment opportunities for people with skills in this industry.

Looking at current skill shortages in Greater Wollongong, all of the top three skills are ICT related – there is a particular focus on coding and development in Perl/Python/Ruby (coding languages), Java development, .NET and other Microsoft application development.


WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR WOLLONGONG?While Wollongong’s economy is quite diverse and delivers a balance of employment opportunities in health care & social assistance, education & training, manufacturing and retail – it is yet to stimulate high participation in the workforce.

The skills most prevalent in the city are around IT and management – enabling workers to move across industries and, most likely, move between the labour markets in Sydney and Wollongong. Current skills shortages are also in IT, reflecting industry growth pressures. LinkedIn data and RAI’s analysis confirms that Wollongong has an emerging ICT industry yet to be measured by other types of data. All skills measures are indicating that this is an important component of the local economy. The challenge for the business community is to ensure a high proportion of these new jobs are based locally in the city - rather than Sydney.


LAUNCESTON

POPULATION: ~ 92, 000WORKING AGE POPULATION:57,886 (16,000 LinkedIn members)

KEY FACTS:Transitioning from manufacturing to a more diverse economy

LARGEST EMPLOYERS:



CONNECTIONS

67 24%

20%

TOP 5 CONNECTION LOCATIONS1. Launceston2. Tasmania - other3. Melbourne Area4. Sydney Area5. Brisbane Area


Financial Services

IT RealEstate

Marketing& Advertising

Construction

PER MEMBER

TOP 5 SKILLS1. Healthcare Management2. IT Infrastructure and System Management3. Education and Teaching4. Graphic Design5. Marketing Event Management


L

Health Education and training

Retail


Launceston is a regional service hub offering an affordable lifestyle and proactively building its education economy.

Business Development & Relationship Management

Event Planning & Management

Financial Analysis & Modeling

Launceston today Launceston is a regional city in Northern Tasmania, roughly 200km north of Hobart – the State’s capital. Launceston is often considered the second capital of Tasmania by the locals and the many tourists who visit the city every year.

Launceston is transitioning away from traditional strengths like manufacturing into more diverse service provision. That said, manufacturing still accounts for a little below 10 per cent of employment and is the fourth largest employer behind health care & social assistance, retail and education & training.Its location brings Launceston a notably higher proportion of people employed in agriculture, forestry & fishing. While it only accounts for 2 per cent of employment, this is roughly four times the share in the other four spotlight cities.

Launceston is the smallest of the five cities with a population of roughly 92,000. It also had the slowest population growth rate for the period between 2011 and 2016 at 6.4 per cent.

Despite its comparatively small size, Launceston has a good level of economic diversity. This is influenced by the important role it plays servicing surrounding towns and Northern Tasmania more broadly.

Amongst the five cities, Launceston has the highest average economic output per employed person and the second highest Bohemian Index score - a lead indicator for creative industries. Launceston also has the highest proportion of its population of the spotlight cities with a bachelor degree or higher. This all points to a regional economy that is both creative and capable.

LAUNCESTONIf Launceston could increase its innovation capacity, the city would likely see even better outcomes. Looking at the measures of innovation in [In]Sight: Australia’s regional competitiveness index, the Launceston local government area has some advantages due to the presence of research organisations in the area. However it scores less well on the business dynamo, which measures how well innovative capacity is translated into economic advantage.

Launceston’s smaller size and steady growth rate could work to the city’s advantage, as Launceston has the most affordable housing of all the five cities. An average couple aged between 35 and 44 years could buy a house in Launceston with less than two and a half years’ annual household income. This makes Launceston an attractive and affordable place to live.

Current skills and availabilityLaunceston has both the lowest number of average connections per member (67) and the lowest overall proportion of its working age population on LinkedIn (27.6 per cent). In terms of the locations of those connections, Launceston is about average for the proportion located within the region (24 per cent) and overseas (20 per cent) compared to the other spotlight cities.

On average, connections within Tasmania make up about 40 per cent of Launceston’s LinkedIn connections. It is important that the city couples these networks with good connections outside the state. External networks are important for keeping track of new trends and looking for new ideas that can be brought to the city for its future benefit.


WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR LAUNCESTON?Launceston’s smaller size and steady growth rate could work to the city’s advantage, as it has the most affordable housing of all the five cities. Coupled with a high Bohemian Index, Launceston is clearly a livable place for new economy industries, well positioned to grow by attracting new knowledge workers.

Like other spotlight cities, healthcare management, IT infrastructure & system management, and education & training are the top three skills in Launceston. Recent recruitment has focused on business development and financial skills – and together these point to a desire amongst Launceston’s employers for skilled people to help their businesses grow. Event planning is the other high mobility skill for Launceston, another sign that the city’s cultural offerings are growing.

Like other spotlight cities, healthcare management, IT infrastructure & system management, and education & training are the top three skills in Launceston. The next two are graphic design and marketing event management. The availability of these two skills is likely due in part to the type of workers that are attracted to LinkedIn but also Launceston’s transition towards a service economy.

Evidence of a growing service economy can also be seen in the skills with the highest mobility. Business development & relationship management, financial analysis & modelling, and event planning & management make up the top three most mobile skills.

Again these skills are likely to have a fair degree of turnover by their nature but also likely indicate a degree of demand and growth within relevant occupations and industries.


This report presents the first group of findings from the partnership between the RAI and LinkedIn, making a specific contribution to the RAI’s Cities Research Agenda. The work shows how social media data can be used to identify current trends and future needs amongst different places, with greater depth of analysis possible in places large enough for the data to be of good quality.

Skills and mobility are critical issues for all regions – especially regional cities, and the RAI-LinkedIn partnership is showing how an up-to-the-minute snapshot can be prepared to identify the status of skills, connections and mobility.

In partnership, the RAI and LinkedIn are continuing to develop analytical tools to enable wider access to this important economic data, drawing on LinkedIn’s international experiences and applying them to Australian regions. We look forward to releasing new tools, research and summary insights in coming months.

FIVE SPOTLIGHT CITIES

For more information about this report (or to get involved in the RAI’s Cities Research Agenda) please contact Dr Leonie Pearson – Leader of Major Research Projects at the Regional Australia Institute:

e [email protected]

p (02) 62603733



CONNECTING OUR GREAT SMALL CITIES · 2016. 12. 2. · INTRODUCING THE 5 SPOTLIGHT CITIES MEASURING...

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Transcript of CONNECTING OUR GREAT SMALL CITIES · 2016. 12. 2. · INTRODUCING THE 5 SPOTLIGHT CITIES MEASURING...