REGIONAL NSW LEADS NATIONAL JOB GROWTH

The latest national job growth figures reveals an additional 30,000 jobs were created in regional NSW in the last year, Minister for Regional Development John Barilaro announced today.

Mr Barilaro said the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data confirms our rural economy is leading the nation with increasing business confidence because of the strong infrastructure program and the delivery of better services in our rural communities.

“The NSW Government is investing in regional NSW through our record infrastructure program to create more jobs and continue growing our $138 billion regional NSW economy,” Mr Barilaro said.

“We are hearing more and more about people looking to regional NSW to escape the city, reduce their commuting time, spend more quality time with the family without sacrificing the opportunity to develop a career or grow their business.

“Our investment will continue to support initiatives that create jobs, drive economic growth and deliver the services that will unleash the economic potential of regional NSW,” Mr Barilaro said.

Initiatives to boost business investment and job growth in regional NSW include:

• Funding of $26 million to fix mobile phone black spots,
• Investing $110 million in to the Regional Tourism Infrastructure Fund, and
• Delivering the $32 million Murray Darling Basin Regional Economic Diversification initiative.

Regions with the strongest job gains over the past 12 months included the Illawarra with over 10,000 additional jobs, the Mid North Coast, which increased with 7,000 new jobs, as well as the Richmond-Tweed region that had over 7,000 new jobs.