Julia Gillard announces success of Jobs 1001 Campaign

Story taken from Guardian Messenger, 11th April 2012

MESSENGER Community News’ Jobs 1001 has cracked its employment target - a month after its launch.

At presstime, a total of 1376 jobs have now been generated under the campaign by Messenger and its sister community newspapers across Australia, in partnership with job agency Maxima, local businesses and communities.

It follows an announcement late last week that logistics giant Toll Group will hire an additional 700 workers over the next six months.

And it comes in the wake of the Inner Southern Business Enterprise Centre (ISBEC) announcing free workshops for jobseekers as part of the campaign.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard made the jobs annoucement, praising the community newspapers on the success of the campaign.

“I’m very pleased to be here today as part of the campaign by News Limited community newspapers to create 1001 new jobs,” Ms Gillard said.

“Now the great news about this campaign, which was kicked off a while back, is that it’s already exceeding its target.

“The original aim was to create 1001 new jobs in 101 days.

“We’re a third of the way in and already the target is being exceeded.

“More jobs are being created. And the contribution of Toll to that target is a remarkable one, with 700 jobs - 30 of them apprenticeships.

“This hasn’t just been achieved by big employers like Toll.

“The result is being achieved by small businesses stepping forward and saying they’re prepared to put on an additional one person or two people or one additional apprentice in their business.

“So this is a community effort. It involves local newspapers, it involves local members, local employment services, local training providers all working together to maximise opportunities in their local communities for work.

“Congratulations to News Limited local papers on the work they are doing in this campaign.”

Toll is a leading supplier of integrated transport logistics with operations spanning road fleets, warehousing, ships, air freight capacity, ports and rail rolling stock.

Among the new jobs are 30 apprenticeships in heavy engineering.

Jobs 1001 is the nation’s largest ever community-inspired employment drive.

It harnesses the power of News Limited’s community newspapers and the country’s leading recruitment agencies.

It has grown directly from Messenger Community News 2011 Jobs 101, which created more than 101 jobs in 101 days.

Messenger Editor-in-Chief Matt Deighton said the campaign would continue, regardless of the target.

“This was never about the numbers, it was always about providing opportunities and career paths for local people in challenging times,” he said.

“If we can double this number in the next month, we’ll be happy, but we get a kick out of every single job created because, behind every number, is a person.”