SA jobless rate drops from 7.3 to 6.3 per cent, shaking off title of having the nation’s highest unemployment rate
SA no longer has the highest unemployment in the nation, with our volatile jobless rate dropping a full percentage point.
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South Australia has shaken off the embarrassing title of having the nation’s highest unemployment, amid a massive drop in the jobless rate from 7.3 to 6.3 per cent.
Latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, released on Thursday morning, show SA’s rate is still 1.1 per cent higher than the Australia-wide seasonally-adjusted unemployment figure.
The more stable trend figure puts SA’s unemployment rate at 6.5 per cent.
The latest seasonally-adjusted figures, which have become increasingly volatile in recent years, are for September. SA had Australia’s highest unemployment the two months prior.
Queensland has overtaken SA on both measures to have the country’s highest unemployment.
It comes amid a recent trend of both an increase in SA jobs and people seeking work, which combined to push the overall unemployment up over the past year.
The total number of people now employed in SA is 855,400, a new record high.
That marks a rise of 400 new jobs in the past month, and nearly 15,000 since the state election in March last year where the Liberal Party claimed power after 16 years of Labor rule.
SA jobless rate drops 1 whole per cent, down from 7.3 to 6.3. No longer worst in the nation. Queensland overtakes at 6.5pc.
— Daniel Wills (@DanWillsTiser) October 17, 2019
Master Builders SA chief executive Ian Markos said it was “extremely pleasing to see the significant decline in the unemployment rate”.
“However, SA is still higher than every other state besides Queensland and many people in the building industry are hurting from the confidence hit caused by proposed changes to land tax,” he said.
“I’ve got no doubt that with a reduced tax burden South Australia’s unemployment rate would fall below the national average.”
When Premier Steven Marshall came to power, the SA unemployment rate was 5.8 per cent.
The jobless rate reached 7.8 per cent under the former Labor government in July 2015.
Skills Minister David Pisoni said employment growth in SA “continues to be strong”, pointing to a healthy rise in the number of full-time jobs.
“The Marshall Liberal Government is continuing to implement our growth agenda,” he said.
“A good example of this is the opening of the FIXE Startup Hub at Lot Fourteen yesterday, operated by Stone and Chalk, with more than 100 entrepreneurs from 29 startups having moved in already.
“The Lot Fourteen precinct is symbolic of the substantial transition of the South Australian economy, which the Marshall Liberal Government is driving through the emerging industries of space, cybersecurity and defence.”
Earlier this week, a report from Deloitte Access Economics found SA was in the middle of a “people power” boom as both the number of people in work and looking for it surged.
“There’s been much focus on a recent lift in SA’s unemployment rate,” the report stated.
“But it’s better seen as the gap between two good-news trends — a rising number of jobs, and a rising willingness to work.
“Overall job growth remains pretty solid, but it has been overtaken by more willingness among those aged 55 and over to stay in work.
“Although that combination has seen unemployment lift, it’s better understood as the fastest increase in the state’s workforce since the mid-1980s. In a state that’s long been in search of a surge in people power, one has been occurring under its nose.”
The report warned that failing to generate enough jobs creates a “rising risk that youth will leave”.
ABS figures show a recent slowdown in the number of South Australians fleeing across the border. The number spiked in 2016 to 7212, but declined to 5151 last year.
