Does economic prosperity translate to regional youth employment?

ABSTRACT

There is a consensus that the retention of youth in regional locations is fundamental to building sustainable regional communities; however, the lack of employment opportunities is a dominant cause of regional youth out-migration. It is plausible that economic prosperity arising from resource booms would create job opportunities and extend youth employment rates even in regional locations. We, therefore, analyse the Western Australian case of a decade-long mining boom (2004–2014) using secondary policy data and primary focus group interviews with youth from regional locations. We examine their employment experiences and the labour policy initiatives during a mining boom. A comparative analysis of secondary and primary data indicates the need for focussed regional inclusion initiatives. Our study suggests the need to implement localised youth employment policy interventions. The study highlights the policy implications particularly for future economic windfalls and international resource-rich regions seeking to broaden their regional development agendas and address overall unemployment.

KEYWORDS:

• Resource boom
• youth employment
• localised regionality
• Australia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kantha Dayaram

Kantha Dayaram is an associate professor of human resource management and industrial relations at Curtin University. Her research interests include transitional labour markets and labour development; working time and well-being.

Fay Rola Rubzen

Dr Fay Rola Rubzen is an agricultural economist/ development economist with extensive experience in farming systems research; analysis of farmer behaviour under risk and uncertainty; gender, poverty and food security; agribusiness and supply chain analysis; and poverty and social analysis.

Hasnat Ahmad

Mr. Hasnat Ahmad has acquired more than 10-years experience  in teaching and researching Economics, Management, Demography and Health Economics. Mr. Ahmad has worked as a Research Officer (Economics) at the apex planning body of Pakistan (Ministry of Planning, Development and Reforms), as a Research Associate at Curtin Business School (Curtin University, Australia), and as a Research Fellow at Menzies Institute for Medical Research (University of Tasmania). He earned a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) degree in Econometrics and Quantitative Economics from a reputed university in Pakistan. Mr. Ahmad’s current research focuses on demographic and health economics and he has published in various respected international journals including Applied Economics, Applied Economic Letters, Telecommunications Policy, Value in Health and others.

Naomi Britten

Dr Naomi Britten is a lecturer in Communication and Introduction to Humanities at Curtin University. Her research interests include curriculum design, international education and youth employment.