SA unemployment rate in shock spike to 7.3 per cent, a three-year high
The state’s jobless rate has spiked to 7.3 per cent — the worst in Australia again and the highest rate in three years, as more people try to find work.
SA News
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A surge in new jobseekers has spiked SA’s unemployment rate to a three-year high, as high utility bills and flat wages put pressure on households to make ends meet.
The shock news defied expectations the rate would fall.
Updated official data released on Thursday morning showed the seasonally-adjusted figure remains the highest in the nation by a clear margin and has jumped from 6.9 per cent to 7.3 per cent.
That unemployment blowout from August follows a similarly alarming spike the month before, and comes despite the total number of South Australians, who do have jobs, reaching a new record high of 855,400. Despite a continuing trend of jobs growth in SA, the number of people looking for work is increasing at an even faster clip and pushing up the total rate of unemployment.
Australian Industrial Transformation Institute director John Spoehr said stagnant wages and high utility bills were combining to force more women back to work, as many men struggled to be breadwinners on their own.
“Many women are entering or re-entering the workforce because their partners are struggling to find or maintain secure, reasonably well-paid full-time jobs,” he said.
“Household budgets are under pressure from flat wages growth and rising utility costs.
“There is jobs growth in the health, aged-care, welfare and education sectors, where women are over-represented.”
The high unemployment rate for men is being blamed on a changes in the manufacturing industry after Holden’s closure and there are concerns that many blue-collar workers lack the different skills needed to crack into hi-tech fields.
The gender job gap continues to widen in SA, as male unemployment hits 7.5 per cent on trend terms, compared with just 6 per cent for women.
SA’s overall unemployment rate of 7.3 per cent compares with a national rate of 5.3 per cent, and is 0.9 per cent higher than the next worst states of Queensland and Tasmania.
The shock figures reignited a political battle over the State Government’s plans for the economy, after Premier Steven Marshall said there was “good news” in July figures that showed a surge of confident jobseekers are pushing up the unemployment rate.
Treasurer Rob Lucas struck a downbeat tone on Thursday, saying the new figures were “disappointing” and showed more work needed to be done.
“There are significant challenges,” Mr Lucas said.
“We are transitioning from essentially a manufacturing-based economy to an exciting future of space, shipbuilding, cyber and defence.
“In the interim, we are going to have to manage the significant job challenges over the transition period.”
Mr Lucas said a nearly $12 billion public infrastructure program coming in the next few years would help provide many new construction jobs.
Opposition treasury spokesman Stephen Mullighan said the Premier had “increased a raft of fees, charges and taxes, made massive cuts to public services and investment in infrastructure has been delayed”.
“Steven Marshall promised more jobs; instead he’s delivered the highest unemployment rate in Australia,” he said.
Workskil Australia chief executive Nicole Dwyer, whose not-for-profit group helps people into jobs, said unskilled and semi-professional workers without a tertiary education were struggling the most. More work needed to be done to improve the “employability” of disadvantaged jobseekers and encourage employers to give someone a go.