Upper Hunter economy on the up

BY JESSICA ROUSE

The Upper Hunter's economy is on the up with a falling unemployment rate and a rise in commodity prices increasing confidence in the region.

Changes to the resources sector are thought to have played a big part in the results according to the Hunter Research Foundation Centre's (HRF) latest report.

There's been a massive turnaround in the economy with the jobless rate falling from 8.6 per cent in December 2015 to just 4 per cent last December.

Lead economist from HRF Dr Anthea Bill says the rising employment rate is a huge win for the region and it's thanks to the movements in commodity prices, particularly improvements in the price of thermal coal.

"It's softened a little bit in the beginning of 2017 but even over the year from March 2017 to March 2016, there was a 54 per cent improvement in thermal coal prices and that's obviously flowing through into direct employment and sub contractors."

Image theherald.com.au

She also says both consumer and business confidence are to thank for the region's better economy.

"We can see there's been a sustained improvement in business confidence and rising measures of business performance, profitability and trading and also rising forward facing measures such as hiring intentions and capital investment expenditure predictions in the December quarter."

Even resident's expectations for the region's economy are on the rise for the next three months at its highest since 2005 with business owners confident the local economy has and will improve for the short and long term.

"Generally, overall there's been renewed regional confidence, so we've seen a big jump in business confidence in terms of the regional outlook, so the outlook for the Hunter overall, and we've seen market improvements in householders confidence better than it has been for more than a decade," said Dr Anthea Bill.

However, housing figures were the weak link, with the median house price falling from around $345,000 in December 2015 to around $328,000 last year.

Hunter Economic Breakfast

BY ARIANA GATTI

The Hunter Research Foundation will be holding an Economic Breakfast tomorrow morning in NEWCASTLE, in celebration of its 60^th birthday.

The Celebration Breakfast will be looking at past and future prospects for the organisation, as well as promoting its launch of three new research publications.

The research will include the analysis on the state of the Hunter economy, as well as business engagement and the community’s level of well-being.

The publications will be delivered by Dr Anthea Bill, Dr Brent Jenkins and Michael Blythe on the day.

[Image courtesy of: http://www.hrf.com.au/]

Funding for Lake Macquarie Area Could Be Economically Beneficial

BY BRIDGET GUNN

Lake Macquarie Council has announced more than $95,000 in sponsorship funding to different community events and initiatives around the Lake Macquarie area.

These events and organisations include:

• the Fernleigh 15 ($17,500);
• Hunter Track Classic ($5000);
• Lake Macquarie Running Festival ($10,000);
• Music in the Podium ($12,000);
• the Lake Macquarie Philharmonic Orchestra ($5000);
• the Lake Macquarie Festival of Surfing ($10,000);
• Hunter Research Foundation ($6,250);
• Swimming NSW’s 2017 Swimming NSW Country regional Championships ($5000);
• the Hunter Elvis Festival ($10,000);
• the 2017 Disabled World Water Ski Championships ($10,000); and
• the Science and Engineering Challenge Lake Macquarie Discovery Day ($5000). 

Lake Macquarie Mayor Jodie Harrison says this funding will prove to be a huge economic benefit to the local community.

"A lot of them are major events, and they bring a significant number of visitors to the local government area of Lake Macquarie," says Harrison.

"There will certainly be economic benefits for the local community, there will be tourism benefits, there will be people coming into the area and that is certainly great for our local economy, which is good for the community."

'Elvis' at the Hunter Elvis Festival in 2014
Source: The Newcastle Herald