The Fraser Coast has a growing workforce, but the job mix explains a lot about everything else in this series – income, housing product mix, and even commuting. In 2024, economy.id modelling estimates 45,877 employed residents and 44,469 local jobs. That is close, but it also suggests many locals work across the boundary or have work patterns that do not fit neatly into ‘local jobs’.
Unemployment is the metric everyone watches, and it tells a useful story when you look at it over time. In June 2024, the unemployment rate was around 5.0%. By June 2025 it had risen to 6.4% (about 3,359 unemployed people in a labour force of 52,602). That is not a panic number, but it is a reminder that population growth does not automatically mean secure, full-time work for everyone.
Our employment structure is heavily service-based: health, construction, retail, education and tourism-related services. These sectors are essential and often resilient, but they also contain more part-time roles and lower wage bands, which flows into household income and housing stress.
The opportunity for 2026 is diversification and productivity: attract industries that pay higher wages, build local training pipelines, and speed up planning and infrastructure so investment is not lost to other regions. For property, the message is direct: jobs and housing must be planned together. If we keep building homes without enabling employment growth (and vice versa), the community gets the worst of both worlds.
Stats source: economy.id (NIEIR modelling) employed residents and local jobs (2024); unemployment statistics (June 2024 and June 2025) reported in the economy profile.
