Summary: This statistical indicators publication sets out NSW regional labour force trends by labour force indicator for the period May 2000 to May 2014. It is a companion paper to the Research Service publications, Labour force trends in Greater Sydney and Labour force trends in Regional NSW.

The ABS releases labour force data for the 28 NSW Statistical Areas Level 4 (SA4s) (see maps from page 8 of this paper) in two publications: Labour Force, Australia, Detailed – Electronic Delivery, May 2014; and Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, Quarterly, May 2014. 15 of these SA4s are located in Greater Sydney and 13 in Regional NSW.

In this paper, all 93 NSW Electorates, for both the 2013 and 2004 Redistributions, are matched to their corresponding SA4s. On pages 11 to 15, the electorates are matched to three SA4s at most (note that several electorates lie across more than three SA4s). Tables list the percentage of each electorate’s population located in an SA4, as calculated using the 2011 Census.

31 labour force indicators feature in this publication. The first 12 include key labour force indicators such as employment, the unemployment rate, the youth unemployment rate and the participation rate. Except in the case of long-term unemployment, these indicators are broken down by gender and by age – total, persons aged 15 years and over, and youth, persons aged 15 to 24. The last 19 indicators concern employment by industry. Two tables are provided for each industry: a count of persons employed in the industry; and the percentage of total employed persons employed in the industry.

For every data table, the largest increases over time are highlighted in green and the smallest increases or largest decreases are highlighted in yellow. Each region is ranked from highest (1st) to lowest (28th) for those indicators which are percentages or ratios. The regional figures are accompanied by State, Greater Sydney and Regional NSW figures for comparative purposes.

This publication starts with a section on key labour force concepts and youth unemployment. Reading this chapter prior to the rest of the paper is recommended in order to best understand the figures presented, especially with regards to youth unemployment. Several less well-known labour force indicators aid interpretation of such key indicators as the youth unemployment rate. These include, for example, the youth unemployment ratio and the ratio of youth-to-adult unemployment rates. The following tables summarise the key figures for all 28 regions. The commentary draws attention to interesting labour force trends at the NSW level, providing a context for the regional labour force trends.