The latest ABS jobs figures are indicating growing optimism in the Marshall Liberal Government’s economic agenda with a continuing decline in South Australia’s headline unemployment rate.
The ABS Labour Force stats released today shows further improvement in South Australia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in November, dropping to 5.3 per cent. The trend unemployment rate was broadly steady at 5.6 per cent.
Compared to October, total full-time employment rose by 1,100 in trend terms, and total employment in trend terms rose by 12,900 during the year to November, with 9,000 of those representing full-time jobs.
Total employment reached 843,700 which is the highest on record for South Australia.
Minister for Industry and Skills David Pisoni said the latest jobs figures reflects renewed business confidence and endorsement by employers of the Marshall Liberal Government’s policies and effective incentives to create more jobs.
“Business is responding favourably to our plan to re-boot the state’s economy which we’re now seeing in the jobs figures for South Australia,” he said.
“This government has promised to abolish payroll tax from the start of next year, it has plans to reduce land tax and more than $200 million has been allocated to create over 20,000 apprenticeships and traineeships over four years.
“These are just part of a myriad of Marshall Liberal Government policies to deliver jobs and economic growth in South Australia including the recent announcements to establish the National Space Agency in Adelaide and the multi-million-dollar upgrade of the Whyalla steelworks.”
Other encouraging signs include strong growth in private sector investment, which rose by 8.3 per cent in the September quarter compared with a year earlier (in real trend terms) and retail turnover which grew by 2.9 per cent in the October quarter when compared to a year earlier.
The BankSA state monitor reported that the number of South Australian businesses that have employed new staff over the past three months has spiked to its highest level since 2010 and those intending to hire over the next three months was at its highest level since 2007.
General business confidence remained steady at its highest level since 2010.
Minister Pisoni said the latest figures indicate that the South Australian economy is growing and that business confidence is being restored.
