South Australia’s jobless rate improves in first survey after the end of the JobKeeper subsidy

SA’s jobless rate has fallen almost a full percentage point in the first unemployment rate survey since the JobKeeper subsidy was wound up.

South Australia has shed the unwanted mantle of the nation’s highest unemployment rate after it dropped to 5.7 per cent in the first month since the JobKeeper wage subsidy ended.

Australian Bureau of Statistics data released on Thursday showed Tasmania’s unemployment rate was now the worst – at 6.2 per cent for the month of April.

Queensland’s jobless rate, at 6.1 per cent, was also worse than SA.

SA’s unemployment rate was at 5.7 per cent for April, down from 6.3 per cent in the previous month.

The national jobless rate was 5.5 per cent.

The total number of employed people, 864,200, was an SA record.

The State Government highlighted that the three highest employment numbers had been under Premier Steven Marshall’s government, elected in March, 2018.

Innovation and Skills Minister David Pisoni said the figures showed SA had created 53,000 jobs since the peak of the COVID pandemic.

“South Australia has weathered the health and economic impacts of COVID-19 as well as anywhere in the world,” he said.

“Wages in late April were 4.2 per cent higher than the pre-COVID-19 level, the second strongest performance of the states.”

SA’s underemployment rate of 8.3 per cent was the country’s third-highest, after Tasmania’s 8.6 per cent and Queensland’s 8.5 per cent.

SA’s participation rate of 62.8 per cent was the nation’s second-lowest, after Tasmania’s 61.3 per cent.

Opposition treasury spokesman Stephen Mullighan said SA’s low participation rate and high youth unemployment (15.1 per cent) were still “concerning signs for our job market”.

“Today’s figures show a welcome reprieve from months of having the worst unemployment rate in Australia,” he said.

“(But), we’ve still got the worst youth unemployment rate in Australia and the worst participation rate on the mainland.”

Figures released in April showed SA’s unemployment rate for March was 6.3 per cent, down from 6.8 per cent from the previous month.

Ahead of Thursday’s release of the first unemployment figures covering the period since the JobKeeper wage subsidy ended on March 28, Premier Steven Marshall on Thursday unveiled another international tech firm setting up headquarters at Lot Fourteen.

Technology solutions firm LVX Global will move its headquarters back to Adelaide from Perth, bringing 20 jobs into the soon-to-be-completed Bice Building at Lot Fourteen – the former Royal Adelaide Hospital site.

Meanwhile, submarine builders Naval Group expanded its apprenticeship program by inviting other businesses to host trainee workers in key trades required for the Attack Class project.