The study also reveals a yawning gap in employment advertising across the metropolitan area,with new postings in western districts of Sydney down by an average of 54 per cent since lockdown versus a fall of 29 per cent in the city’s eastern districts.
The biggest declines were in the city’s outer south-west (down 61 per cent),outer west and Blue Mountains (down 61 per cent) and Blacktown (down 59 per cent). Each one of those regions includes “areas of concern” which have experienced the harshest restrictions.
Nick Kamper,chief executive of Purpose Bureau,which conducted the analysis,said an employment crisis was emerging in western Sydney as hiring plummeted amid strict lockdowns.
“Hiring has fallen off a cliff in western Sydney,where businesses have turned off the employment tap,” he said. “The recruitment squeeze in NSW has been twice as bad in western Sydney since the July restrictions were put in place.”
Tamara Jubran,a 23-year-old who lives at Merrylands,has been job searching “non-stop” for two months.
“I’ve been sending applications and going to recruitment agencies and everyone is saying there’s nothing in western Sydney at the moment,” she said.