The issue of a previous generation leaving Tasmania to pursue careers on the mainland could now offer an opportunity as they return home, KPMG Demographer Bernard Salt has declared.
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They are the people Mr Salt calls ‘Lifestylepreneurs’ – career-minded Tasmanians who have built a successful career in a mainland city, but were now looking to downsize for a better lifestyle.
Mr Salt’s comments are backed by a report which named Launceston as one of the nation’s top entrepreneurial hotspots.
Commissioned by the National Broadband Network, the Launceston Lifestylepreneur Report reveals micro-businesses – operations with four or fewer employees – have been growing at an annual rate of three per cent for the past two years.
The report will be discussed at a breakfast on Thursday, where Mr Salt will be the guest speaker.
He said Launceston’s history had made it an attractive place for young people to foster a business idea or a baby boomer to leave corporate life and be their own boss.
“When you look at the culture of Launceston in comparison to Hobart, you can see a community far more private sector, far more entrepreneurial,” Mr Salt said.
About 83 per cent of employment in Launceston and the broader area is in the private sector – compared to 84 per cent nationally.
When compared to other similarly-sized cities, Launceston ranks second behind Mackay in private sector employment.
Mr Salt said micro businesses were behind that trend – with a 3 percentage point increase between 2014 and 2016.
“Given the context of contraction in other levels of business, it is significant,” he said.
“They are small scale but the numbers are certainly there to suggest someone is creating these businesses.”
Over the two years to June 2016 the number of micro businesses in the greater Launceston region rose from 2864 to 2950.
The Northern Midlands had the largest jump, increasing from 91 to 115.
Mr Salt said the relocation of Tasmanians from mainland cities was being complemented by the increased NBN speed.
But he said Launceston’s crown as having the nation’s fastest internet connection would not be “a factor that’s going to drive large-scale economic recovery”.
“But I do see this as a niche to be leveraged and that can and will continue strongly into the future,” he said.
But there was a negative find in Mr Salt’s report.
He said the bigger end of the small business spectrum – operations employing between five and 20 people – has contracted.
“At a face value that means the bigger end of the small business sector seems to be contracting or consolidating,” he said.
But Mr Salt stressed the health of businesses in the area remained positive.
“There are more people employed today in Launceston and region than there was ten years ago,” he said.
