The release last week of the October employment figures comes amid a few months of doubts about their accuracy and value.

Nationally, unemployment rate has held steady at 6.2 per cent, with more than 24,000 jobs created last month.

September figures were revised after the Bureau of Statistics re-evaluated seasonal adjustment because of recent survey changes.

JobsInTheHunter.com.au Founder Tim O’Brien says it’s time to develop more reliable and useful monthly jobs figures.

“When the Australian economy was booming, there wasn’t the same need for these figures as there is now because there was virtually full employment,” Tim said.

“But, even then, there was talk of Australia’s multiple economies and how resource states had a different ‚Äì better ‚Äì economic profile than others.”

“This situation exists as a regional level and we need strong, reliable data so regional economies can adjust and plan.”

Tim said regions were encouraged to develop strategic plans for their economic and social progress, usually through state and local governments or agencies, and to optimise these strategies solid research data was needed.

After capital investment in a region, the level and nature of available jobs was the usual indicator of progress and success, he said.

“At JobsInTheHunter we are looking for ways to collaborate with other relevant bodies and agencies to ensue that up-to-date and reliable data is available on the local regional employment landscape.”

He continued, saying that the value of a regional approach in service to the jobs market had been demonstrated by the success of the JobsInTheHunter approach to regional employment development, with hundreds of local jobs being advertised.

It now has websites in two NSW regions and one in Queensland.