Victorians Hit by Job Cuts

Published: August 27, 2008 - 02:22 PM

Geelong and Melbourne households to be affected by 950 job losses

By Lesley Coombes

The Herald Sun has reported that 350 Victorian Ford workers are destined to lose their jobs after Ford’s announcement on Friday. The promise of future job losses will not only negatively affect those workers but its ‘spillover effects’ will ultimately tug on the strings of Victorian household budgets.

Ford spokeswoman Sinead McAlary told ABC, “Global economic factors around the whole world are starting to affect Australia’s car industry.”

Since June there has been a significant drop in demand for new cars, particularly the locally made six cylinders. With an expectation of this trend continuing, 350 workers will be jobless at Ford’s plants in Broadmeadow and Geelong.
The drastic slide in customer demand is responsible for another 600 expected job cuts in the Geelong engineering plant by 2010 and Australia’s most prominent truck manufacturer, Kenworth Trucks, has also announced plans to axe 80 jobs.

This ‘job cut boom’ follows the Bracks July 2008 review of the Australian Automotive Industry confirming, “There has been a shift in consumer preference towards smaller, lower fuel consumption vehicles…… This has adversely affected the local vehicle assemblers which produce in the large car segment.”

The effects of these job losses are already being felt in Victorian homes. Reassessment of household budgets is imperative in a slowing economy and especially necessary for those directly affected by job cuts.
ShopAround offers a free electricity and gas comparison service which can help families affected by job cuts that are looking to reassess household. For example, a Malvern resident of postcode 3145 can see the increased need for households to compare Melbourne electricity suppliers after his electricity bills show an annual increase of approximately $12.80 between 2007 and 2008.

“Bills are increasing and everything in the supermarket is costing us more. If you want cheap electricity and cheap gas you have to have your eyes open and constantly compare gas and electricity suppliers” said David Power of ShopAround.

Switching to cheap electricity and cheap gas is an essential first step for families looking to save money. ShopAround.com.au has taken the hard work out of gas and electricity comparison providing an efficient method to compare gas and electricity suppliers.

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