Australia’s economy continues to recover strongly from the impact of COVID-19, but as this blog shows, the job impacts of COVID-19 varies from region to region. In this update, Rob identifies the Local Government Areas most impacted by COVID-19 using the recently released Quarterly Economic Data presented on economy.id. If you are keen to learn more about this release for your LGA, please feel free to get in touch. This blog is written to support our suite of economic tools and services that inform economic development strategies and COVID-19 recovery planning. Learn more here.
With something like 200 councils using economy.id over the past 10 years or so, we are getting many questions about:
- “what is the impact of COVID-19 on our local economy?”
- “can you tell us more about recent trends?”
- “what information do you have to help us develop a recovery plan?”
These requests are becoming more urgent as Economic Development takes a lead role in the economic recovery of communities.
In response to these questions, .id, with our partners NIEIR, have released quarterly economic data for all Local Government Areas in Australia, providing insights into the economic impacts of COVID-19. This release provides the only dataset in Australia about the GRP and Local Job impact of COVID-19 at the Local Government Area level.
Where did we see significant job decline?
The nature and duration of impacts from COVID-19 varies significantly from location to location. The largest impact in the June Quarter 2020 were in metropolitan areas (social distancing impacts) and in tourism destinations (border closures). As shown in the table below, Bayside (NSW), home to Sydney Airport, experienced the largest impact with jobs down by 12 per cent in the June Quarter 2020. Tourist destinations like Douglas (QLD), Noosa (QLD), Blue Mountain (NSW), Victoria Park (WA) were also hard hit.
Perhaps surprisingly, Nillumbik (VIC) was the only Victorian LGA in the top 20 hardest hit. This was because many areas in Victoria had rebounded strongly from the initial fall in April 2020 meaning that the June Quarter impact was only moderate. The September Quarter impacts (available soon) however will show a different story with the Stage 4 lockdown in Victoria having a significant impact across the State.
Search for the impact on your LGA in the table below.
How to analyse the impact of COVID-19 on your economy?
This quarterly economic data is presented in economy.id and provides an effective way of assessing the local impact of COVID-19. The Quarterly economic data is available from the main heading under ‘Quarterly Economic Indicators’. From this page you can look at how the economy has changed over time, identify the impact of COVID-19 and compare the impact to other benchmark regions. This data is drawn from NIEIR, and uses the same model that is developed for the Annual Economic Series which was updated in March 2021.
Where to find quarterly data on economy.id
Using our tools and services to inform your recovery plan
Provision of quarterly data is the latest enhancement designed to provide the local area evidence base, enabling council officers to spend their time on the policy work, decision making and strategic planning. economy.id also provides a wealth of related information to help build your recovery plan and make informed decisions. If you are keen to learn more about how to use economy.id to inform your recovery plan or economic development activities, please feel free to get in touch. We have also developed a suite of economic tools, consulting services and insights that inform economic development strategies and COVID-19 recovery planning. Learn more here.
