Mr James visited three Ballarat high schools - Phoenix P-12 Community College, Ballarat Clarendon College and St Patrick's College - in an effort to arm students with an understanding of the economy and skills in financial literacy.

With strong population growth, rising employment and increased job security, Mr James said the city's livability was increasing and creating more demand for homes.

"If more homes are being built then there are knock on effects through the broader economy. We are seeing that in terms of strong demand for builders and tradesmen."

He said population growth was always positive provided it was planned for.

Projects like the Gov Hub, with a short term benefit of job creation during construction, will provide a long term benefit with up to 1000 public servants to be based here upon its completion.

"Certainly there can be challenges around population if you don't have planning but it is a case that [all levels of] governments need to look closely at in terms of the demands on the economy with changes in population," he said. 

"If there are more people in Ballarat you need to look at things like parking, roads and rails systems, hospitals and schools."

Vice Principal of Phoenix College Grant Luscombe said it was important for students to have an understanding of how the economy affected their lives and the school prepared them to be global citizens in a world with jobs that have not yet been developed.

"A lot of our students will be going into the workforce and into jobs with skills that aren't even invented yet so we have to prepare them for those jobs and create a real love of learning.

"We are preparing our students to be global citizens and are teaching them how global events can impact on our country financially - like Brexit, trade deals with the US and China and our local free trade agreements and so forth."