SA unemployment rate highest in the country, at 6.2 per cent, as men struggling most to find work

South Australia’s unemployment rate is the highest in the country, at 6.2 per cent, and men are struggling most to find work as the manufacturing and drought-hit farming sectors struggle.

South Australia’s unemployment rate is again the highest in the country, at 6.2 per cent.

In latest figures, released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday, the local unemployment rate dropped from the 6.3 per cent it stood at in November.
However, Queensland’s large drop from 6.3 per cent to 5.7 per cent leaves SA alone as the worst performing state.
The national unemployment rate is 5.1 per cent.

The two big states of NSW and Victoria have again led the nation in creating employment opportunity, with unemployment rates of 4.5 per cent and 4.9 per cent respectively.

The headline seasonally-adjusted figures have been highly volatile in recent months.

However, SA is also at the bottom of the pile using the more stable trend numbers.

On that measure, SA unemployment is 6.4 per cent and stable.
The national trend rate is 5.1 per cent.

The number of people employed in SA also dropped in December.

After reaching a record high of 855,700 jobs in June, SA’s workforce slumped to 847,600 in December. In the month of December alone, 1400 more jobs were lost than created.

When Premier Steven Marshall was elected in March 2018, the seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 5.6 per cent.

It peaked at 8.3 per cent under the former Labor Government’s watch, in June 2015.

Recent Advertiser analysis of industry figures showed a significant rise of jobs in the white collar sector, as manufacturing and farming shrink.

Today’s figures again show a large gender gap in the SA job market, as men struggle.

On seasonally-adjusted data, SA men have a 7.4 per cent unemployment rate.
That spiked markedly from 6.5 per cent last month. SA women, however, have a 4.9 per cent rate.

That is the lowest recorded for SA women since November 2018.

Innovation and Skills Minister David Pisoni tweeted: “South Australia’s headline unemployment rate dipped in December to 6.2 per cent, while the trend rate remained steady, demonstrating that there’s further work to be done to get more South Australians into jobs”.

Opposition treasury spokesman Stephen Mullighan tweeted: “Marshall diet of higher taxes, axed jobs programs and slow infrastructure investment hurting SA”.

MORE TO COME