North-West and West-Central Sydney employment strategies : final report

The NSW Government's Metropolitan Strategy City of Cities: a Plan for Sydney's Future (NSW Department of Planning 2005a) sets a target of 280,000 net additional jobs in Western Sydney by 2031. The target is based on maintaining the early 2000s ratio of jobs self-sufficiency for Western Sydney in a context of ongoing population growth. The jobs targets translate into a net additional 130,000 jobs for North-West sub-region and 61,000 net additional jobs for the West-Central subregion. On the surface the targets are a simple aspiration seemingly achievable by a continuation of the region's jobs growth trend for the last decade. Our findings, however, show that the targets will be difficult to achieve, especially with a satisfactory mix of full time and part time jobs. The report's main outputs are its analysis and recommended employment strategies for two of Western Sydney's three sub-regions, North-West and West-Central.