There are encouraging signs of employment growth in South Australia with the release of the latest ABS job figures for March.
A record 848,300 South Australians were employed in trend terms.
There were almost 116 million hours worked in the economy in March, including an extra 2.7 million compared to the same period last year. This equates to an extra $95 million paid in wages to South Australian workers.
Although the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in March rose slightly to 5.9 percent, there are almost 15,000 more South Australians in employment, of which three-quarters are working fulltime, compared to the same period last year.
This was driven in a large part by a dramatic jump in the seasonally adjusted participation rate by almost 1 percentage point, which shows that the increase in business confidence is now translating to the broader community as more South Australians optimistically head back to the job market.
The number of employed persons increased by 8,500 in seasonally adjusted terms from February to March.
Over the year to March, full-time jobs in seasonally adjusted terms grew by almost 11,000 (7,700 in trend terms). Whichever number is used, this a significant expansion of opportunity for South Australians.
The trend unemployment rate remains steady at 5.9 percent.
Minister for Innovation and Skills David Pisoni says these are encouraging results with the State Government working to achieve further improvements.
“We are seeing consistent levels of confidence and growth in the South Australian economy as businesses respond to the changes in policy since the election of the Marshall Liberal Government,” he said.
“Matching skills to industry-demand is an important part of our plan to create more than 20,800 apprenticeships and traineeships over four years to drive employment growth.
“The Marshall Liberal State Government and the Morrison Liberal Federal Government are investing $203 million to ensure training skills for new industries in South Australia such as Defence, space, cybersecurity, entrepreneurship and the aged care sector.”
The latest ABS job figures also show an improvement in the youth unemployment rate over the month, dropping to 15.0 percent in March, down from 15.2 percent in the previous month.
South Australians have earnt an extra $827 million in wages over the first 12 months of the Marshall Government compared to the last 12 months of the previous Labor Government.
