Victoria’s Hume region continues to be among the state’s economic powerhouses.
Hume has experienced an employment growth rate of 8.3% over the 5 years to 2022. As of March 2023, the most recent figures available, the region’s unemployment rate stands at 3.1%.
Areas of major jobs growth over the 5 year period include healthcare, social assistance, agriculture, forestry and fishing, construction and public administration.
Hume’s gross regional product continues its upward trend rising by 9.8% over the 5 years to 2022.
Since 2016, the number of businesses in the Hume region has increased by almost 4000, reaching close to 32,000.
Eliza Brown, chair of Regional Development Australia (RDA) Hume, said that Hume continues to be a standout region supplying vital economic lifeblood to the Victorian economy.
RDA Hume’s Business Plan for 2023-2024 details how it aims to support its local communities in a number of key strategic areas. The focus areas consider underlying challenges facing the region’s prosperity and key opportunities that will enable growth and development.“
The RDA Hume Business Plan presents key sustainable investment priorities including the delivery of a Hume Housing Prospectus that aims to identify viable solutions to our region’s housing situation,” Ms Brown said.
Other priorities addressed in the plan include energy transition as well as the skills gap and workforce shortage.
Ms Brown highlighted tourism as an ever increasingly important economic driver for the Hume region.“The Alpine areas linked with the attraction of wine and gourmet food destination and other popular tourist towns combined to attract almost 9 million domestic overnight and daytrip visitors to the Hume region during the year ending June 2023,” she said.
“They contributed more than $3.2 billion in tourism expenditure in the region — a truly remarkable achievement given the challenges that the sector has endured in recent years.“
As emphasised in our current Business Plan, RDA Hume is fortunate to be closely involved with all levels of government and has an important role in advocating for impactful projects across the region to maximise economic benefits to all of Hume.”
The RDA Hume region runs from Wodonga to Seymour and from Greater Shepparton to Toowong. It has a population of over 312,000 which is expected to increase to 416,000 by 2036.
View the RDA Hume Business Plan 2023-24.