Economy
Jobs Data
Media release – Peter Gutwein, Premier, 17 September 2020
New jobs data promising sign for Tasmania
The Tasmanian Liberal Government is delivering our plan to rebuild a stronger Tasmania, and the most recent ABS labour force data is further evidence that our plan is working.
Despite the pandemic’s devastating impact on jobs, the data shows that there are now more Tasmanians employed than this time last year, demonstrating our sensible and measured recovery plan.
Today’s statistics show that employment grew by 2,300 jobs in the month of August. This means 15,800 Tasmanians have now returned to work since the height of the pandemic’s impact in May. Our unemployment rate also remains the lowest of any state which is more evidence of our cautious optimism in Tasmania.
Our Construction Blitz of $3.1 billion is stimulating demand and supporting confidence, and the August NAB Business Survey found Tasmania continues to have the best business conditions in the nation.
We know a strong construction sector builds confidence and flows over into other parts of our economy, but we know that more needs to be done.
That’s why we have invested $7.5 million into our “Make Yourself at Home” campaign and earlier this week, announced $60 million in low-interest loans to support business recovery and growth.
Tasmanians can be assured we will work harder every day to restore business confidence, and to grow our state to be the economic powerhouse it was before the pandemic.
David O’Byrne MP, Shadow Treasurer, 17 September 2020
Ray of hope in jobs data, but worse to come
Labor has welcomed the improvement in the latest headline ABS jobs figures, but says the biggest impact is yet to come.
Shadow Treasurer David O’Byrne said in less than two weeks, many Tasmanians would lose access to the JobKeeper payment, as payment thresholds change.
“That’s not just bad news for workers, it’s bad news for the broader economy.
“At the moment, there’s billions of dollars coming into the state from JobKeeper and JobSeeker payments.
“We heard last month that 63,000 Tasmanians are receiving JobKeeper – that’s a massive segment of the Tasmanian workforce.
“It shows how vulnerable we are as a state to the Federal Liberal government walking away from Tasmanian jobs.
“Peter Gutwein must not sit back and rely on these figures to justify a hands off approach on the economy.
“He needs to focus instead – in the short term – on lobbying his Federal colleagues hard to ensure that JobKeeper remains available to the greatest number of businesses and workers where jobs continue to be at risk.
“The extension of JobKeeper will give the Tasmanian economy time to rebuild, given our current restrictions.
“As well, he must act now to ensure Tasmania’s youth unemployment rate does not continue to worsen.
“We know that young Tasmanians have been hit hard by the pandemic, and at 14.3% youth unemployment in Tasmania is well above the national average.
“The Liberals have no plan for jobs. Only Labor has a plan to get Tasmanians back into jobs, and support those hardest hit by the pandemic.”
SEEK Employment Report AUGUST 2020, 17 September 2020
Since the beginning of March 2020, the coronavirus pandemic has had an extreme impact on the job market. For the
foreseeable future, the SEEK Employment Report will feature relevant month-on-month and year-on-year job ad data.
Refer to SEEK Employment data for further detail.
The August 2020 report focuses on month-on-month data, which offers a clearer picture as to how the job market is
evolving and recovering from the pandemic.
STATE OF THE NATION: THREE RATES OF RECOVERY EMERGE ACROSS AUSTRALIA
The latest SEEK Employment Report data shows a 2.0% month-on-month (m/m) national decline in jobs advertised.
This is the first time a decline has been reported since April.
Comparing August 2020 with August 2019, job ads are 29.1% lower, which is the smallest difference in year-on-year
(y/y) comparison since the pandemic began.
August data also shows that job ads across all states and territories are recovering from their lowest point in April at
three different rates, with some states rebounding and showing comparable pre-COVID job ad levels.
Kendra Banks, Managing Director, SEEK ANZ comments: “We are seeing three distinct rates of recovery emerge across
Australia. The first group are the states that have fully rebounded or have job ad rates comparable to pre-COVID levels –
this includes Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and Northern Territory. The second group are the states that
are continuing to recover towards pre-COVID levels, which are Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital
Territory. Unsurprisingly this leaves Victoria as the state which declined significantly for a second month, where stage four
restrictions continue to have a major impact on businesses and hiring.
“The national month-on-month decrease of 2.0% is being driven by the existing restrictions in Victoria which are impacting
job ad growth. Excluding Victoria, the rest of Australia saw a 1.8% increase in job ad volumes in August when compared to
July.
“NSW and Victoria, the two biggest contributors to the nation’s economy, are currently the only states below the national
average for year-on-year job ad growth.”
Table 1: National, state and territory job ad growth/decline comparing August 2020 to: i) July 2020 (m/m) and; ii) August
2019 (y/y)
STATE OF THE INDUSTRY SECTORS
The three sectors that had the highest amount of jobs ads during August were Healthcare & Medical, Information &
Communication Technology and Manufacturing, Transport & Logistics.
● Healthcare & Medical was up by 1% m/m with roles in aged care & general nursing, physiotherapy, occupational
therapy & rehabilitation, psychology, counselling & social work, dental and medical administration.
● Information & Communication Technology was up by 4% m/m, including roles for developers & programmers,
business & systems analysts, software engineers and help desk & IT support.
● Manufacturing, Transport & Logistics was down by 3% m/m, with roles in assembly and process work,
warehousing, storage and distribution, road transport, machine operators and purchasing, procurement &
inventory being in demand.
Two sectors of note are Human Resources & Recruitment and Banking & Financial Services. Both sectors sit within
Professional Services, which is an area that was severely impacted during the height of the pandemic. Encouragingly,
some roles in these areas have increased from July to August and are showing early signs of growth.
● Human Resources & Recruitment was up by 12% m/m, featuring roles for consultants and generalist HR,
recruiters, occupational health & safety and training & development.
● Banking & Financial Services was up by 7% m/m, with roles for compliance & risk, retail & branch members and
financial planners.
Media release – Senator Carol Brown, Senator for Tasmania, 17 September 2020
1,000 MORE TASMANIANS OUT OF WORK IN PAST MONTH
Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows there are now 17,200 Tasmanians out of work, a rise of 1,000 in the past month.
At 12% Tasmania’s underemployment rate is second only to Victoria.
The unemployment rate for young people under the age of 25 has shot up to 14.3%.
Carol Brown, Labor Senator for Tasmania said, “There are 50,000 Tasmanians either unemployed or underemployed, yet the Morrison Liberal Government has yet to announce a jobs plan.
“There are no substantive measures from the Morrison Liberal Government designed to create jobs during the first recession Australia has faced in 30 years.
“The Government expects a further 400,000 Australians to lose their jobs between now and Christmas but they won’t tell us what they’re going to do about it.
“Too many Australians are being left behind by the Morrison Government. There’s a new announcement every day, but they never deliver,” Senator Brown said.