Education and Employment

Regular school attendance ensures academic success and future life outcomes, while high absence rates lead to disengagement and poor outcomes. Completing secondary education leads to better life satisfaction and smoother workforce transitions.

Workforce participation enhances living conditions, health and well-being. Unemployment leads to financial stress, social isolation, decreased skills, poor psychological health, family conflict, low productivity, and criminal activity.

Hume Snapshot 

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Two in seven people aged 25-54 years hold a bachelor's degree, an increased from one in five people in 2016.

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Across all grade levels, days absent from school is higher when compared to Greater Melbourne.

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Two in five employed residents work within Hume City, while more than half commute outside the municipality for work. 

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Hume City has the second-highest unemployment rate in the state and the highest in Greater Melbourne.

One in nine young people are not engaged in employment, education or training.

Detailed Context 

Youth Disengagement

One in nine young people in Hume City aged 15-24 years (11.0%) are not engaged in employment, education or training. This is significantly higher than Greater Melbourne sitting at 7.0%. Hume suburbs with the highest percentage of disengaged youth include the south eastern areas of Coolaroo, Campbellfield, Dallas, Meadow Heights and Broadmeadows.

Education

Educational attainment in Hume City has improved, with 28.7% of residents aged 25-54 years holding a bachelor's degree or higher—up from 20.7% in 2016 but still below Greater Melbourne's 44.9%. Popular fields of study include Teacher Education, Business and Management, Accounting, Nursing, and Computer Science. Additionally, 16.4% of residents in this age group have a Certificate 3 or 4 level of education, slightly higher than Greater Melbourne's 13.9%. Top fields of study for persons with a certificate 3 or 4 level of education are Building, Human Welfare Studies and Services, Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Technology, Automotive Engineering and Technology, and Food and Hospitality.

Employment and Industry

Hume City is home to more than 26,000 local businesses that employ over 134,000 people. The largest employing industries include Transport, Postal and Warehousing; Manufacturing; Construction; Retail Trade; and Health Care and Social Assistance, which collectively account for two-thirds (65%) of local jobs.

Two in five (40%) employed residents work within Hume City, while the majority (56%) commute outside the municipality for work. The top industries for employed residents include Health Care and Social Assistance; Construction; Transport, Postal and Warehousing; Retail Trade; and Manufacturing, with over half (52%) working in these sectors. The largest growth since 2016 for the industries that Hume City residents work in has been in the ‘Construction’ and ‘Health care and social assistance’ sectors.

Unemployment

Hume has the second-highest unemployment rate in the state and the highest in Greater Melbourne, with a rate of 7.2% as of June 2024, compared to 4.2% for Greater Melbourne. Four of the top seven SA2 regions in Victoria with the highest unemployment rates are all within Hume City: Meadow Heights (16.1%), Campbellfield-Coolaroo (15.9%, which also incorporates the suburb of Dallas), Broadmeadows (14.9%, which also incorporates the suburb of Jacana), and Roxburgh Park-North (13.2%).

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