City of Cockburn: Economic Resilience Report and priority industry profiles

Cockburn’s economy has grown faster than Greater Perth’s for a decade, but mostly by adding workers rather than lifting output per worker. Its outlook now depends on a $27.9 billion pipeline of defence, port and freight projects. If you’re about to report against industry and precinct targets, it helps to agree up front how they’ll be measured. Otherwise it’s hard to tell real progress from a change in the numbers.

Cockburn is entering a new phase of economic development. The Investment Prospectus sets out what the City has to offer, and the Action Plan commits Council to delivery. What Council didn’t have was a solid local evidence base underneath both. It needed something that could feed its economic snapshot publication and stand up when KPIs are reported.

Workforce was a particular gap. The industries Council wants to grow need very specific skills, and there was little evidence on whether the local workforce can supply them.

Council wanted to understand:

• How is Cockburn performing against Greater Perth and neighbouring councils such as Rockingham, Wanneroo, Fremantle and Kwinana?
• How big are the City’s priority industries and employment precincts, and how are they changing?
• Does the local workforce match the industries Council is trying to grow?

The report covered economic performance, the drivers of growth, industry strengths and diversity, employment precincts, workforce and skills, and the outlook from major projects and population forecasts.

We also profiled Council’s priority industries and its key employment precincts, including Henderson, Latitude 32, Bibra Lake, Jandakot and Cockburn Central. Before running any numbers, we agreed the industry definitions and precinct boundaries with Council, so that every future update measures the same thing. The precinct figures are modelled estimates. They’re built to track change over time, not to give exact counts.

The analysis drew on NIEIR modelled economic data, the ABS Census, building approvals and business counts, our population forecasts and a register of committed and proposed projects.

• Cockburn is outgrowing the region, but on more workers rather than higher output per worker. Output grew 2.7 per cent a year from 2015 to 2025, against 2.2 per cent across Greater Perth. Jobs grew 3.5 per cent a year, but output per worker fell 0.6 per cent a year. Growth that depends on a bigger workforce eventually runs out of room, so in the next phase productivity matters as much as attracting new business.
• The City’s industrial strength is real, and the economy around it is broadening. Manufacturing makes up 18 per cent of local value added and is 2.3 times as concentrated as in Greater Perth. Within it, ship and other transport equipment manufacturing is 12.2 times as concentrated. Over the same period the wider economy diversified, from the equivalent of 7.7 equally sized industries in 2015 to 10.2. That lets Council promote a deep specialisation without depending on it heavily.
• The outlook rests on the project pipeline. A register of 21 projects in and around the City is worth about $27.9 billion, led by the $12 billion Henderson Defence Precinct. The State expects employment to grow 1.6 per cent a year, less than half the 3.5 per cent the City recorded over the past decade. Local growth will have to do more of the work, so Council needs to track how its priority industries and precincts are tracking from now on.
• Without a change, the pipeline will bring in its workforce from outside the City. Only 34 per cent of local jobs are filled by Cockburn residents. Each day, about 12,870 more residents leave the City for work than come in. Fabrication engineering trades workers are drawn in from elsewhere, while nursing and midwifery professionals who live in Cockburn work outside it. To capture the defence and freight opportunity, training, housing and local hiring matter as much as land and infrastructure.

The construction peak for the defence and port pipeline falls within the next five years. Westport, the Kwinana Freeway upgrade and the Henderson works are all moving through planning and delivery.

• Economic snapshot: the headline industry and precinct figures are ready to go straight into Council’s economic snapshot publication. Because they’re built to match Economic Profile, the numbers will line up with what’s already on the City’s public site.
• Action Plan reporting: the agreed industry definitions and precinct boundaries let Council set KPIs for the 2026–2028 Action Plan and report against them on the same basis each year.
• Investment attraction: the precinct profiles for Henderson, Latitude 32, Bibra Lake, Jandakot and Cockburn Central give Council up-to-date figures on jobs, output and businesses. These can support the Investment Prospectus and conversations with investors.
• Workforce and skills: the workforce findings, such as how many local jobs go to residents, where trades workers come from and where residents travel to work, give Council evidence for discussions on training, housing and local hiring as the defence and freight pipeline is delivered.
• Ongoing updates: with definitions and boundaries agreed, Council can refresh the baseline as each new year of data arrives, including the 2026 Census results from mid-2027.

If your council is setting industry or precinct targets, we can help you agree the definitions, build the baseline and track it over time. Get in touch to talk through what that could look like for your economy.

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