They're the pillars of the city's economy, but Orange's medical and mining industries operating through the coronavirus pandemic has helped keep more people employed than in most other postcodes across the country.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Data released by analysis company Taylor Fry in its COVID-19 Financial Impact Index showed Orange had been less reliant on JobKeeper than Dubbo and Bathurst, sitting in the 30-40th percentile of postcodes across the country.
Both Bathurst and Dubbo - particularly South Dubbo - had more people on JobKeeper proportionally, sitting in the 50-60 percentile, while the Bathurst region is in the 40-50 percentile.
Smaller postcodes like Yeoval, Cumnock and Carcoar were hit less hardly, all recording the lowest percentage of their workforce on JobKeeper per capita across Australia, while Wellington also proved to be one of the better-off postcodes.
The data only compares postcodes relative to others across the country - the areas around Yeoval and Cumnock being in the lowest 10 per cent of postcodes doesn't mean those areas have less than 10 per cent of the population on JobKeeper, for example.
The data has been weighted by population, and employment data is taken from the 2016 census.
The index showed the employment sectors with the biggest variance to the state average, with Orange's major variances all industries which didn't shut down during the nation-wide lockdown.
The Orange postcode has 2.4 per cent more than the state average employed in mining, while 1.6 per cent more than the state average for healthcare workers.
State government workers, social assistance and education were also industries which had just under one per cent more workers in Orange than in the NSW average - all industries which continued working, mostly from home.
However, regions with higher unemployment rate relative to the rest of the state - areas like Wellington and mostly rural postcodes such as Yeoval, and Cumnock - by and large have recorded the lowest reliance on JobKeeper as well as notching unemployment figures of near and above 10 per cent.
The unemployment data was taken from 2016, but the jobless rate has increased beyond seven per cent in the past few months as coronavirus hit.
Metropolitan regions of Sydney were much harder hit, with most suburbs across the state's capital falling in the top 10 and 20 per cent of postcodes which are most reliant on JobKeeper.
It presents a stark divide between regional and metropolitan, with most areas west of the Blue Mountains in the bottom 50 per cent of postcodes reliant on JobKeeper.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
- Send us a letter to the editor using the form below ...
Max Stainkamph
Max joined the CWD in September 2017, leaving the big smoke of Melbourne to come to Orange, where he stayed until 2020.
Max joined the CWD in September 2017, leaving the big smoke of Melbourne to come to Orange, where he stayed until 2020.
