Fewer people employed in Gippsland

The number of people employed in Gippsland has dropped by 7,000 over the past three years.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics latest regional labour force figures at the end of June put the number of people in work in Gippsland at 125,600 representing 52.3 per cent of the region's population.
The Bureau's data charts show total employment in the region in June 2019 - pre-COVID - was 132,600 with an estimated 56.8 per cent of the population in work.
Females in work outnumbered men by 1,000 at the end of last month.
The number employed in Gippsland has dropped each year since 2019, to 128,600 in June 2020 and 127,400 on June last year.
Over the past three years unemployment in the region rose by just 400, from 5,600 to 6,000, despite the number of people in jobs declining by 7,000.
The unemployment rate now stands at 4.5 per cent compared to 3.7 per cent of the available workforce in 2019.
State minister for industrial relations, economic development and trade Tim Pallas said the Bureau's data showed overall regional unemployment across Victoria was continuing to fall as an additional 3,400 jobs were created over the past three months.
The 3.2 per cent unemployment across the state's regions was the lowest in Australia where the average figure is 3.9 per cent.
He said Warrnambool and the South West were leading the state with an unemployment rate was just 0.9 per cent.
Mr Pallas said businesses were rebounding strongly after being battered by the effects of the COVID pandemic with the government instrumental in the recovery by providing more than $13 billion in business support.
He said almost 350,000 jobs had been created in Victoria since September 2020.