We're still the blue-collar city
FIGURES from the 2011 census have confirmed what most people already knew about Ipswich: it's still a blue-collar city.
The second, and final, round of figures was released from the 2011 census yesterday.
The figures gave information on employment, education, migration and mining on the growing Australian population.
The census shows Ipswich has a higher number of tradespeople, labourers and machine operators than the Queensland or Australian averages, and fewer professionals and managers.
In the Ipswich statistical region, spanning from the far western suburbs of Brisbane, to the Ipswich city, across the Somerset, Lockyer Valley and the Scenic Rim, 15.7% of the population declared they were working as technicians or trades workers - compared to 14.9% Queensland-wide and 14.2% nationally.
Similarly 13.2% of residents were labourers, compared to 10.6% statewide and 9.4% across the country.
Only 14.4% of Ipswich worked in a profession at the time of the census, while 18.9% of Queensland and 21.3% of Australians declared their job as a profession.
Apprenticeships Queensland marketing manager Anita Dwyer said Ipswich was a prime location for tradespeople.
"We've always been a blue-collar town, there's no surprise there," she said.
"We've seen a big rise in engineering trades as well as construction. The reason for that is the mines.
"There are a lot of people based out of Ipswich that work as tradies all across the south-east or are fly-in fly-out to mines across the state."
Numbers Grow
- The census is conducted once every five years by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
- The 2011 census reported a national population of 21,507,719; up from 19,855,287 in 2006.
