HUNDREDS of applications are flooding in for just a handful of casual and part-time jobs in Bendigo as local workers seek to collect extra hours in the service and hospitality industries.
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Bendigo employment providers believe the backlog of job applications is caused by casual and part-time workers trying to collect extra hours by taking on extra jobs.
An advertisement for a casual food and beverage attendant at the Shamrock Hotel received at least 166 online applications in one month.
Casual cleaner’s jobs are also in high demand. One casual position in Bendigo received more than 420 applications in 30 days.
Another casual kitchen hand position in Bendigo attracted 225 applications, while a similar job had attracted the attention of 120 people.
A part-time receptionist position with Heartscope Victoria, based in Bendigo, had 94 applications in eight days.
After advertising a full-time retail position, Bendigo Electronics had 42 applications in less than a week.
Employment agency MatchWorks Bendigo assistant site manager Bryden McFarlane said it was not unusual for casual and part-time positions in Bendigo to attract hundreds of job applications.
“That’s definitely not an unusual case. We find that job seekers in Bendigo are often competing with a lot of people for positions,” he said.
“For cleaners, their work is rarely full-time so there’s always a lot of people looking for extra hours and extra work.
“In hospitality there are not as many hours available, so people are looking to top up their hours with other jobs.”
MatchWorks is one of three employment agencies which received a contract under the federal government’s jobactive program, along with Western District Employment Access and A4e Group.
Mr McFarlane said factory jobs and labouring work remained a consistent source of employment for people in Bendigo, but full-time positions remained difficult to come by.
Despite the high number of job seekers looking for extra work, Bendigo’s unemployment rate remained below the regional Victoria average.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics showed the unemployment rate was 5.75 per cent in the September quarter last year, almost identical to the Victorian and Australian average.
There remained more than 3100 unemployed people in Bendigo – the lowest level since June 2012. The figures did not measure the number of people in full-time, part-time or casual employment.
The federal government’s labour marker information portal showed Bendigo had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the state in 2016, while the Latrobe-Gippsland region had the highest.