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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-03-17 Daily Xml
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Employment Figures

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (14:32): My question is to the Treasurer. Can the Treasurer update the house on the details of the job figures released by the ABS this week?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (14:32): I am sure that all of us await, with bated breath, the fortnightly release of the Single Touch Payroll figure series by the Australian Bureau of Statistics as the most contemporaneous analysis of labour market figures in our state and in the nation. Only yesterday, the most recent fortnightly Single Touch Payroll figures were released for the nation by the independent Australian Bureau of Statistics.

I am pleased, and I am sure even Labor members in this chamber will be delighted, to hear these figures. These figures indicate that, in the most recent fortnight, which goes through to 27 February 2021, the growth in jobs in the states and territories shows that South Australia, pleasingly, leads the nation when compared to the low point of the pandemic, which was the middle of April, on 18 April.

When all the states are measured in terms of the growth of jobs from the low point of the pandemic, 18 April, through to the most recent figures of 27 February, there has been an 11.3 per cent growth in jobs in South Australia.

The next highest jurisdiction, the second one, is Western Australia, at 10.4 per cent, and the lowest of all the jurisdictions, without going through all of them, is Victoria, at 8.2 per cent. The highest is South Australia with an 11.3 per cent growth in jobs, and Victoria is the lowest at 8.2 per cent. The national figure is 9.0 per cent. So South Australia is a full 2.3 percentage points higher than the national figure.

More pleasingly, as I have indicated on previous occasions, are the measures of changes in employee wages, as measured. Again, as I have indicated, total wages or wage income going into households is a better measure in terms of the relative financial health and prosperity of households throughout the nation.

Again, pleasingly, South Australia is the second highest jurisdiction behind the very big household income increases in Western Australia. South Australia's growth, since the low point of the pandemic, is 9.8 per cent, and the low figure of all of those is Tasmania at 5.8 per cent—a full four percentage points higher than the low point of Tasmania. The Australian national figure is 7.8 per cent.

Summarising those numbers, as I have indicated previously they are important because, whilst the monthly labour force figures are a useful guide, by the time they are released they are sometimes three or four weeks out of date in terms of measuring the health of the economies, and they just measure the number of full-time and part-time jobs in the economy.

These numbers, as I said—in particular the wages number, which is the better indicator we believe—are an important indicator that slowly but significantly we are seeing economic recovery nationally, which is very important. We are also, more importantly, seeing South Australia either leading or the second highest state in terms of those two key indicators in terms of the grow back of jobs and economic growth in our state—and in our nation, frankly—post the pandemic.

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