Advertisement

SA jobless rate jumps to 7 per cent

“What’s the use of having budget surpluses with an unacceptably high level of unemployment?” Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis’s budget-day rhetoric came back to haunt him today, exactly a week after he handed down his 2016 economic statement, as South Australia’s unemployment rate surged back to 7 per cent.

Jul 14, 2016, updated Jul 14, 2016
Tom Koutsantonis says there are "green shoots" despite the jobless rate taking a turn for the worse. Photo: Nat Rogers / InDaily

Tom Koutsantonis says there are "green shoots" despite the jobless rate taking a turn for the worse. Photo: Nat Rogers / InDaily

SA joined Tasmania and New South Wales in registering an increase in the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate, and remains the state with the dubious honour of the nation’s highest jobless figures – alone on 7 per cent, up from 6.8.

The seasonally adjusted national rate increased 0.1 per cent to 5.8 in the month to June.

It came as Koutsantonis spruiked the benefits of his budget measure to offer grants to small and medium businesses which took on additional workers, revealing the first applicant for a $4000 handout was Boyd Plumbing and Gas. Its director, Luke Boyd, said the scheme had “definitely made me think about taking on additional apprentices and tradespeople over the next two years”.

“We’ll be putting the grant back into the business to pay for further training for our guys,” he said.

Koutsantonis said other applicants included firms from the health, trades and design sectors, and pointed to the positive signs in the jobless figures, with the number of people in jobs in SA up 4600, seasonally adjusted, in the month to June.

“We’ve seen a lot of green shoots, with 6900 new jobs created over the last 12 months, but still a lot more work to do,” Koutsantonis said.

“We are losing a lot of full-time jobs and creating a lot of part-time jobs.

“It’s difficult, it’s hard – I know a lot of South Australians are doing it tough, but these measures are giving young South Australians every opportunity to go out, find a job and stay here in SA.”

Business SA chief Nigel McBride, a vocal advocate of the grants program, said the answer to the stagnant unemployment problem was economic growth, which required a boost in exports.

“But anything that can create an environment of optimism is great,” he said.

“Cash talks – this is real money coming at a time when a small employer is weighing up whether to build their workforce.”

But Opposition spokesman Corey Wingard argued the state “has shed 20,000 full-time jobs since the Weatherill Government’s state budget in 2014”.

“It is particularly alarming that yet again unemployment is on the rise in SA, leaving us firmly stuck at the bottom of the jobs ladder,” he said.

“The continuing collapse of full-time employment as electricity prices surge will make it even harder for many South Australians to make ends meet.”

Topics: unemployment
Local News Matters
Advertisement
Copyright © 2024 InDaily.
All rights reserved.