Australia: Local Employment Strategies that Address Diversity

Designing employment strategies is a complex issue in Australia, a vast continent with different labour market policy scenarios. One of the scenarios is found in the seven capital cities. These cities grow into extended metropolitan regions, where hubs of skills and knowledge-intensive activities coexist with suburbs of social disadvantage. Other scenarios are found outside these capital cities: in regional centres and remote communities. On the one hand are the booming, prosperous towns where there is a fierce demand for skilled workers, and on the other are the shrinking towns and declining regions, where simply retaining people is a major task for local agencies. These different scenarios indicate the challenges of applying centralised labour market policy instruments to areas with very different market and lifestyle conditions. They also show the important role of local knowledge relevant to local needs, and essential to the design of local employment strategies.