Figures show WA still only State with unemployment rate below 9 per cent

7/7/94

Western Australia remains the only State with an unemployment rate below nine per cent, despite an increase in the June jobless figure.

Employment and Training Minister Norman Moore said today the State's June unemployment rate was 8.9 per cent - up half a percentage point on the previous month. This represented a total of 76,200 people out of work.

Nationally, the June jobless rate was 10 per cent - an increase of 0.2 of a percentage point on May.

Mr Moore said the monthly rise was disappointing but WA's economy continued to maintain a strong growth momentum. Since February 1993, there has been an additional 45,400 jobs created in this State.

"This monthly rise has been due to two factors - an increase in the labour force and a fall in employment," the Minister said.

"The labourforce increase shows that people are growing more confident about finding work and the State's participation rate, that is, the number of people in work or seeking work, increased in June to 65.6 per cent - the highest of all the States and significantly above the national figure.  An extra 3,700 Western Australians joined the labour market in June."

Consistent with this increase in job confidence, the number of Western Australians out of work for more than a year, fell by 5,500 from May 1993, to May 1994.

"This represents more than a 20 per cent fall in the long-term jobless - the group of people most seriously damaged by unemployment," the Minister said.

Mr Moore said that strong growth in business investment remained the necessary key to sustainable employment growth and the Coalition Government's policies were continuing to encourage this growth.

"Regrettably, the Federal Government appears unwilling to address fundamental labour market problems such as workplace flexibility, and this reluctance, tied with concerns about the Keating administration's ability to manage inflation and interest rates, is calling into question the sustainability of Australia's economic recovery," he said.

Media contact:  Ross Storey  321 1444    222 9595