In June the Hunter's youth unemployment rate had reached 15 per cent, a mark Hunter Business Chamber CEO Bob Hawes says makes entry-level positions a rare commodity as coronavirus continues to choke the economy.
That difficulty in finding new jobs for those who were not lucky enough to have one when the federal government flushed billions into JobKeeper and other measures to put employment arrangements into a form of stasis remains.
It is welcome that only months stand between the Hunter and Spotlight Group's Bennetts Green development, mooted as Lake Macquarie's largest since the transformation of Charlestown Square a decade ago.
Its timing could not be better.
This month also marks the first strut removed from the JobKeeper scheme, which will leave enterprises to forge their own path through a much-changed landscape. Only time will tell how they will fare, but it is perhaps too optimistic to believe that every business will manage to immediately pick up precisely where it left off, and with the same levels of staffing and demand.
It is also too pessimistic to believe that none will grow, particularly given Bunnings has declared plans to add a platoon of new staff at Bennetts Green despite the fact it is relocating its Belmont store, and existing workers, to the new premises.
Promising signs for the region's economy are there, despite the gloom of the ongoing pandemic and its very real and human costs as close as Melbourne.
Data from the Housing Industry Association released on Tuesday showed a 12 per cent uptick in approvals for July, which it said likely "reflect building application lodgement and processing returning to normal after the shut-down".
House prices in the Hunter, too, are rising steadily. CoreLogic data reported in today's Newcastle Herald shows a 0.2 per cent rise for Newcastle and Lake Macquarie homes despite the uncertainty that hangs over so much of our lives.
It is worth noting, too, that Victoria's efforts to stem the tide of new cases has borne fruit. The past two days the southern state's case figures have been double digits rather than triple, a dose of relief given how quickly they were rising just weeks ago. Sadly, though, the death toll continues to rise.
Certainly there is cause for caution and concern, but so too are there reasons for optimism and signs that life will go on.
