SA unemployment rate steady

South Australia’s unemployment rate was steady at 7 per cent in October, with the state’s jobless performance in line with the national average.

David Washington

Nov 19, 2020, updated Nov 19, 2020

Photo: AAP/Dan Peled

The Australian Bureau of Statistics revised down South Australia’s September figures from 7.1 per cent to 6.9, meaning today’s figure represents a slight rise in the jobless rate.

Nationally, the jobless rate rose to seven per cent in October, despite the number of people in employment jumping by an unexpected 178,800 in the month.

The worst-performing states were Tasmania (8.2), Queensland (7.7) and Victoria (7.4). South Australia came in next, with Western Australia (6.6), NSW (6.5), the Northern Territory (5.7) and the ACT (3.9) all outperforming the national figure of 7 per cent.

South Australia’s participation rate – which measures the proportion of people either in work or looking for a job – increased by 0.5 percentage points to 63.1.

Economists had expected the national unemployment rate to spike to 7.1 per cent compared to 6.9 per cent in September, while predicting a 30,000 fall in employment.

Full-time employment increased by 97,000, while part-time employment rose by 81,800.

“This strong increase means that employment in October was only 1.7 per cent below March,” ABS head of labour statistics Bjorn Jarvis said, referring to the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

The rise in the unemployment rate came as the participation rate, which measures those in work and people actively seeking a job, rose to 65.8 per cent from 64.9 per cent previously.

South Australian Innovation and Skills Minister David Pisoni welcome an increase in jobs in SA.

“South Australia’s economy continues to perform relatively well compared with other states in its COVID-19 recovery,” he said.

“South Australia is the only state to have recorded growth in full-time employment since March, highlighting just how resilient our economy is.

“I’m also pleased to see a fall in the number of people underemployed in the last month, we want to give South Australians the greatest opportunity to fulfil their employment aspirations.”