Employment Participation Rate

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:41): Supplementary: I would stress that my figures were trend figures, so it's 3.8 since 2008. Considering the minister's comments, which I don't disagree with, that there are a range of factors in participation, is the government alert to any factors that might explain the particularly poor outcome in relation to male participation? To put the question another way: are there any gender specific factors the government is watching in relation to changes in participation rates?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Employment, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Minister for Automotive Transformation, Minister for Science and Information Economy) (14:41): I understand, and I thank the honourable member for his question. Certainly, something that struck us a couple of months ago was the reasonable upturn in the female participation rate, and there are competing explanations as to why that may be the case.

It happened that, either two or three months ago in the ABS stats (and I can't remember the exact figures), the number of females employed in South Australia very significantly increased, but because the participation rate also increased the figures read that there was a decrease in employment, that is, an increase in unemployment for females, even though from month to month there was a very significant increase in the number of females who were working, but it also corresponded with a significant increase in the participation rate, that is, the number of females who were entering the labour force, looking for a job.

Again, there are explanations and they are counter and contrary explanations as to why there are increases for either females or males. A couple of months ago there was a reasonably significant increase in the female participation rate that led to an outcome where, even though a high number of females were in work, we had greater unemployment for females. Whilst there isn't a single easy to understand explanation, it manifests itself in many ways in the unemployment figures.