Employment Figures

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (14:44): My question is to the Treasurer. Does the Treasurer have any recent information on the different employment and unemployment levels that have had an impact, particularly in regional South Australia?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (14:44): There have been two recent pieces of publicly available information released. One is in relation to a recent set of figures produced on internet job vacancies in both the metropolitan and regional areas of Australia, and the other is a breakdown of the labour force figures, which shows an interesting variation between parts of regional South Australia, in particular.

In relation to the internet job vacancy analysis that has been done, what it shows in South Australia is that, compared to a year ago (these are quarterly figures, to August of this year), in the three months to August 2019, internet vacancies in regional South Australia grew by 18 per cent. The strongest areas of growth were actually in the Yorke Peninsula and Clare Valley regions, which grew about 26 per cent. The Fleurieu Peninsula and Murray Mallee grew by 24 per cent and Port Augusta and Eyre Peninsula grew by 24.7 per cent compared to a regional figure in South Australia of 18 per cent, as I said.

That compares reasonably with the growth in terms of internet vacancies in metro Adelaide, looking at the comparison of internet vacancy growth between the quarter to August and the quarter to May of this year. To look at the early COVID figures compared to the more recent figures in Adelaide metro, internet vacancies grew by 69 per cent, and in regional South Australia they grew by just below that, at 60 per cent.

Just before that, the labour force regional breakdown analysis again shows some patchy figures in relation to regional employment and unemployment. What it shows is that the unemployment rate was 6.9 per cent in Greater Adelaide and just under that, at 6.6 per cent, in regional South Australia. So, comparative to the metropolitan area, the unemployment rate in regional South Australia was a little less than the unemployment rate in Greater Adelaide—that was in the year to August 2020 compared to the previous year. It's a year-on-year analysis that has been done.

Importantly, again, there is a difference in terms of the regions. If you look at the year to August 2020 compared to the year to August 2019 for employment in the regions (this is as opposed to unemployment), the strongest growth was in central and the Hills (up 2.5 per cent) and then Barossa, Yorke and Mid North (up by 2.22 per cent), whereas in some of the other regional areas employment figures actually fell during the same period. In the South-East, for example, it was down 2.8 per cent, and in the outback, as defined by the labour force breakdown, it was down by 3.5 per cent.

So, in summary, there are patchy results, as one would expect, in terms of regional growth, in terms of employment and unemployment, growth in terms of employment and performance in terms of unemployment in the region. Some regions are doing slightly stronger than others. It is important.

I think we have seen, because of the restrictions placed on international travel and, up until recently and still to a degree, on interstate travel, there are some sections of regional South Australia, and in particular some industry sectors, that are performing relatively well because people are travelling locally in terms of school holiday travel, weekend travel or just getting away for a little bit of a break travel and having to do that within South Australia, as opposed to being able to travel interstate or indeed overseas.

Certainly, from the government's viewpoint, and as we lead into the state budget in just on four weeks, an important focus for us will be on jobs and economic growth across the state, but there will also be a particular focus, as there always is with a Liberal government, on economic growth and jobs growth in regional areas.