QLD unemployment nation’s highest despite new jobs

A jobs surge in Tasmania has handed Queensland the nation’s highest unemployment rate despite the Sunshine State gaining thousands of new jobs.

Queensland has recorded Australia’s highest unemployment rate despite the state adding thousands of new jobs.

New data reveals Queensland’s unemployment rate sits at 7.5 per cent for December – a 0.2 point fall on the previous month. 

Despite the slight fall the state was overtaken by Tasmania, which recorded 7 per cent unemployed after a 0.9 point fall from November. 

Nationally, Australia’s unemployment rate has fallen 0.2 points to 6.6 per cent. 

The unenviable result despite Queensland’s participation rate, the number of people employed or looking for a job, increasing by 0.7 per cent – a national high.

There are also 36,600 more Queenslanders employed than in November – a 1.4 per cent increase.

Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick. News Corp/Attila Csaszar

A spokesman for Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick said the state had added more jobs last year than any other state.

“While the number of jobs in New South Wales fell by 38,400 over the year, and by 52,900 in Victoria, the number of jobs created in Queensland was 25,600,” he said.

“The road to recovery from COVID is a four-year project.

“The additional challenge for in Queensland is finding employment for the 86,000 Australians who the Federal Government says will move to Queensland over the next four years. Those new Queenslanders rightly want a job when they get here.”

Ernst & Young Chief Economist Jo Masters said the first major economic data of the year continued the “positive tone of recent months”.

“Employment rose nationally by a further 50,000 in the month, participation again rose and the unemployment rate continued its decline to be 6.6 per cent in December,” she said. 

“The jobs-led recovery is well underway, with the level of employment across the country now only 88,000 lower than it was in March last year.”

The data reveals eight in nine jobs lost at the peak of the downturn have now been recovered. 

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said businesses “should be confident” about the future.

“We have some of the lowest levels of (COVID-19) restrictions in the country,” she said. 

“If you don’t have a strong health response you can’t have a strong economy – there’s nothing more certain than that.”

Ms Palaszczuk’s optimism was this week backed by Deloitte Access Economics, which said the state deserves “to have a spring in their step”.

“The health response to the pandemic has been strong – and that’s meant businesses have been able to reopen earlier and to a greater extent,” its report found.