South Australia now has the third lowest seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of all the states, with the rate dropping to 5.7 per cent in January.
The Marshall Liberal Government welcomed the drop in unemployment whilst acknowledging the volatility of the seasonally adjusted statistics.
“Our massive investment in skills training is delivering results for jobs, careers, and paid training opportunities as we repair the state’s training system and boost the capacity of the South Australian workforce,” Minister for Innovation and Skills David Pisoni said.
Highlights of recent national reports such as the Report on Government Services (ROGS) and the latest NCVER statistics demonstrate that these investments are delivering strong outcomes:
- An additional $54.3 million in State Government recurrent training and skills funding, or a 38.1 per cent increase in 2018
- For government funded apprentice and trainee program enrolments there was an increase of 17.1 per cent, which was the largest increase in the nation and 14.4 percentage points above the national increase of 2.7 per cent
- The growth in the number of apprentices and trainees in regional South Australia was 19.3 per cent, the highest in the country, and pathways to apprenticeships and traineeships through schools has increased by 55 per cent compared to a fall nationally.
“These are encouraging results in the face of national economic headwinds, and the impacts of bushfires, coronavirus and softer economic conditions nationally and globally,” Minister Pisoni said.
“In addition to our strong investments in skills training, the Marshall Liberal Government is also undertaking a massive $12.9 billion infrastructure program over the next four years.”
Other positive signs for the SA economy include the improved business conditions in the December quarter, now the strongest of any mainland state according to the NAB Quarterly Business Survey, and an improvement in business confidence in the December quarter according to Business SA’s Survey of Business Expectations.
According to the latest SEEK Employment Report, also released today, the average advertised salary in SA is performing well, up 3.8 per cent year on year in January and up 6.7 per cent in December, with SA also one of the only states showing positive job advertisement growth.
Recent positive jobs announcements for SA include:
- 1000 jobs for new housing development at Gawler East
- 850 construction jobs, 1400 ongoing jobs at LeafCann medical cannabis facility
- 200 construction jobs, 250 ongoing jobs from the $1.53 billion SA-NSW electricity interconnector
- 180 new jobs in post production, digital and visual effects for Mortal Kombat
