South Australia’s headline unemployment rate has gone against the national trend, decreasing to 7.9 per cent in July from 8.8 per cent in June.
Nationally, unemployment rose 7.5 per cent in July up from 7.4 per cent in June.
The July ABS Labour Force stats, released today, show South Australia’s participation rate remained unchanged, with the improvement in unemployment being driven entirely by increased full-time employment in the South Australian economy.
Over the last two months, there have been over 20,000 South Australians back in jobs.
In addition, an extra 3 million hours were worked in SA in July, the largest percentage increase of the mainland states.
Minister for Innovation and Skills, David Pisoni, said growing and sustaining local jobs throughout the COVID-19 pandemic remains a top priority for the SA government.
“We are doing everything in our power to ensure as many local jobs as possible survive through the greatest economic challenge of our time,” said Minister Pisoni.
“Nearly 100,000 jobs have been supported in SA through our $10,000 emergency cash grants, which have benefitted more than 18,700 small businesses and not-for-profit organisations.
“We have also announced a record $12.9 billion pipeline of infrastructure works over the next four years to drive jobs and improve economic productivity.
“We know there’s more work to be done and today’s stats, while encouraging, reflect the significant ongoing challenge ahead,” said Minister Pisoni.
Minister Pisoni noted that recent wage and payroll data had shown a shift in the right direction, with SA recording 2.4 per cent wages growth through the year to June, the country’s equal highest rate (ABS Wages Price Index).
SA is also outperforming many of the other states for jobs growth, recording a 5.2 per cent increase in jobs (from mid-April to late-July) – the third strongest in the nation (ABS Single Touch Payroll Employee Jobs).
SA also recorded the largest rise in business confidence in 13 years in the June quarter, according to Business SA’s Survey of Business Expectations, while SME confidence was the strongest of the mainland states (June quarter, NAB’s Quarterly SME Survey)
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