The South Australian economy continues to perform strongly despite the end of JobKeeper with the State creating 6800 jobs in the month of May as job seekers flock back to the jobs market.
In the last two months South Australia has created 22,400 jobs and now has a record 871,000 people in work.
There’s also a record number of women in work in South Australia with 418,500 employed in the month of May.
“Today’s ABS figures confirm that South Australia has emerged from the pandemic stronger than ever with 60,300 jobs created in the last year,” said Minister for Innovation and Skills David Pisoni.
“It is particularly pleasing than the 48,000 workers on Job Keeper at the end of March are still in work and another 22,400 jobs have been created.
“The fact we had strong growth in the participation rate in the last month explains why the unemployment rate edged up by 0.1 per cent despite the creation of 6,800 jobs.
“The rate of youth unemployment has fallen by 3.3 per cent in the last month as the number of hours worked across the South Australian economy remained at near record levels.
“South Australia’s strong growth in employment vindicates the Marshall Government’s economic policies in the wake of the pandemic, as do other critical economic indicators.”
Despite the challenges created by the pandemic period, the volume of private new capital expenditure in SA in the March quarter 2021 was 21.0% higher than a year earlier - the strongest in the nation by far with the figure for Australia increasing by just 0.8%.
The number of dwelling approvals in South Australia in April 2021 was 41.8% higher than a year earlier and retail turnover in South Australia in April was 16.6% higher.
“The Marshall Government’s $16.7 billion infrastructure investment has helped South Australia weather the impact of COVID-19 as well as anywhere in the world,” said Minister Pisoni.
“Indeed, the Marshall Government has delivered an average unemployment rate of 6.3 per cent since coming to office, significantly better than the 7.0 per cent delivered during the comparable period of the last Labor Government.”