2021-12-13 GC Agenda - Item 9 - Attachment 1 - Draft Economic Development Strategy 2021-2030

Mobility
In 2019 the Covid -19 pandemic forced an experiment in which 6 billion people stayed at home
to avoid the virus and used online collaboration technologies like Zoom, to work remotely and
keep the global economy afloat.
A year later, with proof that knowledge workers can be productive away from the office, the
geographical link between employer and employee was broken. Job opportunities are now
highly mobile. It is now feasible for someone to live in a regional location and work for
organisations based on the other side of the country or the world.
Whereas Noosa residents were once limited to the employment opportunities offered locally,
they now have the potential to participate in a far larger job market where having the
appropriate skills is far more important to an employer than proximity to the office.
Socio-economic impacts of this professional mobility on Noosa is profound, with a rapidly
growing proportion of the community earning a living from employers, clients or markets based
elsewhere and the influx of knowledge workers who are choosing to relocate to Noosa and
bring their jobs with them.

•   While in a global context the movement of people has put pressure on labour markets (we
    are seeing this trend locally particularly in the accommodation and food services sector),
    and goods has put pressure on supply chains, according to the Regional Australia Institute,
    in the March 2021 quarter, Noosa Shire saw the largest annual percentage growth in
    inward migration from capital cities among all LGA’s across the country in the March
    quarter 2021.
•   From an investment mobility perspective, Smart Company report that the value of
    investment funding was up in the second quarter of 2020 in Australia. Additionally Deloitte’s
    suggest that $13 billion in private equity funds is poised to be deployed.