New research shows the Hunter is happier on average than the rest of Australia and open to retraining for future industries.
The Hunter Horizons report, prepared by the University of Newcastle's Institute for Regional Futures, shows three quarters of the Upper Hunter working-age population and seven out of 10 Lower Hunter people are willing to reskill to fill future jobs gaps.
Institute for Regional Futures executive director Roberta Ryan said the data showed Hunter workers were primed for socio-economic transition.
"The Upper Hunter is a great example of a community facing economic transition in a very pragmatic way," Professor Ryan.
"People want to stay in the region and are willing to retrain and reskill to ensure they have work opportunities with emerging new industries."
The research found half of people aged 18 to 34 in state capital cities were "very or somewhat likely" to move to a regional area for a job opportunity.
"These latest findings show that we have a local workforce that is motivated to retrain and reskill and that people are willing to move to the region for the right job, two critical contributors to supplying the region's future workforce," Professor Ryan said.
Upper Hunter people were very willing to be retrained but scored their access to education and training services well below the regional, Lower Hunter, Central Coast and metropolitan averages.
The report concludes that the "central barrier for the region in terms of transition is not a technical but a human one".
"We face challenges in meeting projected workforce demand due to a tight labour market and skills shortages in critical industries," it says.
"There is intense international competition for qualified talent in these growth areas."
The research is based on a survey of 3000 households in the Hunter, Central Coast, Mid North Coast and four capital cities in December and January.
Another notable finding of the report was that housing affordability and access to health care were easily the most important issues facing survey respondents in the Hunter, well ahead of jobs growth, education and training, and infrastructure.
The Hunter, and especially the Upper Hunter, is facing an economic restructuring as the mining and coal-power sectors contract in line with global net zero targets.
But the Upper Hunter scored higher than metropolitan areas, the Lower Hunter and regional Australia as a whole on all four of the report's wellbeing metrics.
The Upper Hunter scored 6.8 for personal resilience, compared with 6 in metropolitan areas and 6.2 in regional Australia; 5.5 for financial security against 4.9 in metro areas; 7.6 for happiness compared with 6.7 in city areas and 7.2 in the Lower Hunter; and 7.2 for health against 6.6 in metropolitan Australia.
"The Upper Hunter is a significant outlier in terms of regional wellbeing," the report says.
"Upper Hunter residents see themselves as healthier and happier than other regional areas, with statistically significantly higher sources of perceived personal resilience, sense of purpose and capacity to manage change."
The research found 58 per cent of Upper Hunter residents saw themselves as "mostly happy", compared with 35 per cent of the metropolitan population and 42 per cent of people in other regions.
Upper Hunter residents rated their "place connection" far higher than people in the Lower Hunter, Central Coast and Mid North Coast.
The report also records the employment growth and contraction in various sectors over the 12 months to February 2024 which have contributed to a 6 per cent rise in Hunter job numbers.
Of the 30,600 new jobs created across the year, health care and social assistance accounted for almost half with just under 14,000.
Education and training job numbers grew more than 7000, followed by accommodation and food services (6000) and retail (6000).
Manufacturing jobs increased by more than 3000 and construction and mining about 1000 each.
On the negative side, jobs in financial and insurance services, information media and telecommunications, and the transport, postal and warehousing sector fell by about 4000 each.
