The 2001 Census indicated that the Ballarat region employed 489 people in ICT occupations[ii]. This represented 1.49 percent of the City's labour force. According to City of Ballarat data, this figure had increased to 630 and 1.9 percent of the labour force by 2006. These levels of ICT employment indicate that the Ballarat region has strong claims to being Victoria's leading regional centre for ICT.

Figure 11 - Distribution of ICT employment in the Ballarat Region

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2001 Census of Population and Housing

Figure 12 - ICT location quotients (selected regions)

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2001 Census of Population and Housing

The location quotient technique was used for deciphering the level of ICT employment within the Ballarat region. This formula allows for an assessment of the ratio of Ballarat's share of the ICT industry compared to the share of the national economy. A location quotient of more than one indicates that a region has a relatively high share of employment within the sector. As indicated by Figure 12, Ballarat's location quotient[iii] is 0.66, which although below the level of the national economy, is stronger than that of Victoria's other major regional centres - Bendigo (0.44) and Geelong (0.49).

Concerning specific occupations, Ballarat has a relatively high proportion of computing support technicians[iv]. Ballarat's level of employment within the IT Managers[v] and Computing Professionals[vi], although below the national average, is still higher than that of Bendigo and Geelong.

Table 7 - ICT location quotients - specific occupations (selected Victorian regions) Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2001 Census of Population and Housing

Figure 13 - ICT employment per 1,000 labour force

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2001 Census of Population and Housing

Another means to assess the level of ICT employment in Ballarat is to calculate the proportion of the labour force employed in such occupations. As demonstrated by Figure 13, Ballarat is again more favourably positioned than Geelong, Bendigo and the rest of regional Victoria. The level of ICT employment in Ballarat is however significantly less than Melbourne or North Sydney and below the regional New South Wales areas of Wollongong and Newcastle. This indicates that Ballarat's ICT sector is still underperforming the national and major metropolitan area averages.