READER'S VIEW: Job vacancy stats say a lot about government

SHANE Newell (Letters to the editor, 17/07/2015) says, "The LNP has once again shown it understands the role of government is to stimulate and facilitate business..."

I hear similar statements touted about the LNP quite often. I wonder if people try to qualify statements such as these with facts or reason; or do they just repeat the LNP mantra without question?

An analysis of job vacancy data for the period of the LNP Newman government shows a dramatic decline of job vacancies for Central Queensland.

Data available for the CQ region up until May 2015 shows that in the first five months of the LNP Newman government, CQ job vacancies declined by 378 vacancies.

After one year of the Newman government, there were 1781.7 less job vacancies for Central Queenslanders to apply for. For the entire period of the Newman government, there were 2198 less job vacancies advertised in CQ than when the LNP took office.

By comparison, in the first five months of the Palaszczuk Labor government, job vacancies have turned around and have increased by 218 vacancies for the CQ region in this short time.

The sharpest decline in job vacancies for any month-to-month period was the period of November to December 2012, which saw a 16% decline in one month for job vacancies for CQ jobseekers, under the LNP.

In comparison, the Palaszczuk Labor government has achieved the highest increase of job vacancies for any month-to-month period for the CQ region over the past three years. For the period from February to March 2015, job vacancies in CQ saw a sharp increase of 16%. This is the highest job vacancy increase for any month-to-month period, since March 2012.

In a few short months, the Labor government has achieved what the Newman government could not achieve in their entire period in office.

That is, "to understand the role of government and to stimulate and facilitate business".

Mr Newell also says, "We only need one by-election to challenge an ALP government that seems to be asleep at the wheel."

I wonder if Mr Newell thinks the LNP were asleep at the wheel when job vacancies in Central Queensland declined by 56% during the term of the Newman government?

That is 2198 job vacancies not open for Central Queenslanders to apply for under the LNP.

If only there was the "threat" of a by-election back in 2012 to prevent the catastrophe called the LNP government. It would have saved this region a lot of pain.

Trish Corry

Norman Gardens