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1 MARCH, 2022
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Brimbank jobs growth By Max Hatzoglou
Mia has a story to tell
Brimbank’s jobless rate is falling, according to new Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data, however, the municipality’s unemployment rate remains higher than the state average. The ABS data revealed that in September, 2021, Brimbank’s unemployment rate was 9 per cent, down from 10.3 per cent in June, 2021. The Victorian unemployment rate in September, 2021 was 4.6 per cent, down from 6.2 per cent in June, 2021. Many suburbs across Brimbank recorded a reduction in their unemployment rate, including Delahey (9.9 per cent in September, 2021 from 11.1 per cent in June, 2021) and Sunshine North (11.4 per cent in September, 2021 from 13.1 per cent in June, 2021).
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I don’t foresee us increasing our unemployment rate
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At just 14 years of age, inspiring young Cairnlea author Mia Gjoni will release her second book, Our Trip to Alien Kingdom, at this year’s Brimbank Writers and Readers Festival beginning on March 17. Mia’s second book will be a continuation from her first book, Our Trip to Gravity Planet, which is a series all about Mia and her family traveling through space, and this time they meet a new species … aliens! Interestingly, the story idea came from a writing assignment set by her tutor in grade four that had to be based on a floating house. “My tutor gave me this picture of a floating house and said ‘base a story around this’,” Mia said. Mia’s mother Belinda was amazed by the story and said it needed to be shared around. “Me and her tutor, once we read this piece of writing that she did, we were just like ‘this is amazing, we need to do something with this’,” Belinda said. “And then Mia started showing her family and friends as well and they were like ‘this is awesome’ so that’s what then gave us the push to actually go ahead and do something with it, it wasn’t just an ordinary story that she had to write for school.” After finding an editor, illustrator and designer, Mia self-published the first book and released it last year. Mia wants to inspire future authors similar to how she was inspired by British authors. “Roald Dahl and David Walliams are my favourite authors ever … they really inspired me because their stories are very unique and interesting,” she said.
- Vu Du
Kings Park had the municipality’s highest jobless rate as of September, 2021 (13 per cent) while unemployment was lowest in Keilor (4 per cent). Sunshine Business Association president Vu Du said construction works, including the Melbourne Airport Rail Link, have helped locals find work. “With the [Sunshine] Plaza shopping centre and the railway link, they have just employed over 300 staff, and then additionally with all the construction going on in the area as well, that just gives continuous employment for the local community, Mr Du said. “With everything normalising after COVID that has also made a dramatic change.” In future, Mr Vu sees unemployment continuing to improve in Sunshine and surrounding areas. “On the proviso that this rail link continues, I don’t foresee us increasing our unemployment rate, if anything it should continue going down, and then additionally with the presence of this area going up in property prices and the two shopping centres, it should bring in more retailers and then more retailers brings in more employment,” he said.
Young author Mia Gjoni. (Supplied)
Max Hatzoglou
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