The national unemployment rate plunged from 4.1% to 3.7% in February on a seasonally adjusted basis. This is the biggest monthly change since December 2021.
The turnaround occurred after the unemployment rate progressively rose between September 2023 and January 2024.
South Australia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped even further, down 0.8% to 3.2% — by far the biggest drop of all states and territories. South Australia now has the lowest seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the country.
Treasurer Stephen Mullighan says this is a truly historic result that has never happened before in our state’s history.
“We now have the best unemployment rate in the entire country and the lowest rate ever recorded in the state’s history since monthly records began 46 years ago.”
However, according to data from South Australian businesses, many are still struggling to find staff with respondents to a recent survey sighting skills and staff shortages as the third biggest issue faced by businesses.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics says much of the employment growth is due to more people than expected starting new roles or returning to work after Christmas and January holidays.
Employment in February grew by 116,000 and the number of unemployed people fell by 52,000. There was also a rise of 2.8% in monthly hours worked after a decline in the previous two months.
These results come just two days after the Reserve Bank elected to hold interest rates for the third consecutive time – admitting that the challenge of overcoming inflation is not yet over.
