Employment Figures

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (14:49): My question is to the Treasurer. Treasurer, could you update the chamber on the latest information you have with respect to employment growth, please?

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: I am not sure that the council heard that, so I am going to ask you to say it again, please.

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD: Certainly. My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer update the chamber on the latest information with respect to employment growth?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (14:49): I am pleased to update the chamber in relation to the most recent figures which were revealed yesterday by the ABS from their labour force Single Touch Payroll data. We have traditionally, in this chamber and elsewhere, relied upon the annual unemployment survey that the ABS conducts. But in more recent times, that is this year, the ABS has conducted a fortnightly update of weekly employee job and wages data, and they tend to be more updated figures than the monthly survey of both employment and unemployment produced by the bureau.

The most recent figures are for the fortnight ending 22 August, and they were published yesterday. I am pleased, and I am sure all members in this chamber would be delighted, to see that the ABS has reported that, since the low point of the COVID-19 pandemic impact on the economy, which was on 18 April, the bureau produces figures on a fortnightly basis which compares the most recent fortnight with the bottom of the trough in terms of COVID-19 impact.

In that period, South Australia's jobs growth since that low point on 18 April has been the second highest of all the states and territories in Australia. The national figure was 4.7 per cent jobs growth since the bottom of the trough but, for South Australia, it was 6.7 per cent, second only to Western Australia at 7.8 per cent. So it was certainly encouraging news and, as I said, I am sure every member in this chamber would rejoice in the fact that jobs growth is rebounding, relatively to the other states, at a much stronger level than certainly the national figure and all other states and territories, with the exception of Western Australia.

Just as significantly I think is the employee wages information which shows wage growth in South Australia, and that covers not just the number of people who are employed but also gives some sort of measure of the number of hours that people have been employed. The national wages growth in the last fortnight had shown a 0.2 per cent increase but in South Australia the relative figure was 0.8 per cent—four times the wages growth rate of the national figure during that period.

Whilst economic figures will occasionally show ups and downs—and too often the downs are highlighted by those who seek to celebrate the pessimism and the negativity that some would like to see in relation to states' endeavours at economic recovery—I think it is important to share with members the good news when it's published, particularly when it's the most recent figures produced by the Bureau of Statistics.