Ms ANDERSON - 2007-04-17
Can the Treasurer update the House on recent evidence about the state of the labour market and employment in the Northern Territory?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Macdonnell for her important question. Last week, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported unemployment in the Northern Territory at 3.5%. Effectively, that means that if you are living in the Northern Territory, if you want a job, you can get one when the unemployment level is that low. Unemployment has been between 2% and 4% over the last few months. There are a couple of reasons for that. ABS statistics regarding the Northern Territory invariably have a degree of strong degree of elasticity related to the size of the labour market and the way they measure their statistics.
However, one thing that is clear and reliable is the downward trend when you are talking about unemployment. It has being moving downward now for the last couple of years. If you look at the jobs growth figures inside the ABS report, they are continuing to show 5.9% growth rate over the last 12 months, which has been around the strongest in Australia. Treasury predicts a little over 3% growth going forward, down to about 2% next financial year, but the economy continues to defy those projections at the moment, with growth currently remaining at almost 6%.
The ANZ Job Advertisement Series is another regular publication that gives us some insight into the labour market. It comes out on a Monday, invariably before the labour force figures are released. It shows job advertisements up 6.6%. The extraordinary thing about that is that it reflects the ongoing growth where. last year, the growth rate was incredibly high. We are coming off of a very high base and still maintaining a 6.5% growth rate in job advertisements. So the rate of growth rate was slow - we accept that - it was at 28% going back 18 months ago, but it is still growing.
If you look at employment and training publications - and I congratulate the Minister for Employment, Education and Training - there are 3141 Territorians in training. To put that into context, up from 2207 in 2001, the year we came into government, that is a 43% increase in numbers in training in the Northern Territory. If we look around the major centres, we see the development going on in Alice Springs in significant capital investment and in infrastructure. In 2005-06, the Northern Territory government spent around $150m in cash alone in the Alice region. Of course, there will be much more to come throughout the rest of this year and the following year. That $100m alone sustains around 900 jobs directly in the construction sector, and thousands more indirectly throughout the community through the multiplier effect.
If you look at indicators, commodity prices are still strong and look set to continue at historically high levels as the demand from China continues to grow apace, with India more recently coming into the commodities market in a strong fashion. Australia is well placed to take advantage of that continuing commodities boom and the Northern Territory, of course, is well positioned in that regard as well. Not only do we have significant mineral resources, we have been putting in the infrastructure to move it.
The indicators across the board, Madam Speaker, are extremely strong: a positive outlook backed up by organisations such Access Economics, the Housing Industry Association, and groups such as that. It is a very positive outlook for employment and the labour market into the future. As I said at the start, if you want a job in the Northern Territory or, if you are down south and you do not have a job, get here, we will give you one.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Macdonnell for her important question. Last week, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported unemployment in the Northern Territory at 3.5%. Effectively, that means that if you are living in the Northern Territory, if you want a job, you can get one when the unemployment level is that low. Unemployment has been between 2% and 4% over the last few months. There are a couple of reasons for that. ABS statistics regarding the Northern Territory invariably have a degree of strong degree of elasticity related to the size of the labour market and the way they measure their statistics.
However, one thing that is clear and reliable is the downward trend when you are talking about unemployment. It has being moving downward now for the last couple of years. If you look at the jobs growth figures inside the ABS report, they are continuing to show 5.9% growth rate over the last 12 months, which has been around the strongest in Australia. Treasury predicts a little over 3% growth going forward, down to about 2% next financial year, but the economy continues to defy those projections at the moment, with growth currently remaining at almost 6%.
The ANZ Job Advertisement Series is another regular publication that gives us some insight into the labour market. It comes out on a Monday, invariably before the labour force figures are released. It shows job advertisements up 6.6%. The extraordinary thing about that is that it reflects the ongoing growth where. last year, the growth rate was incredibly high. We are coming off of a very high base and still maintaining a 6.5% growth rate in job advertisements. So the rate of growth rate was slow - we accept that - it was at 28% going back 18 months ago, but it is still growing.
If you look at employment and training publications - and I congratulate the Minister for Employment, Education and Training - there are 3141 Territorians in training. To put that into context, up from 2207 in 2001, the year we came into government, that is a 43% increase in numbers in training in the Northern Territory. If we look around the major centres, we see the development going on in Alice Springs in significant capital investment and in infrastructure. In 2005-06, the Northern Territory government spent around $150m in cash alone in the Alice region. Of course, there will be much more to come throughout the rest of this year and the following year. That $100m alone sustains around 900 jobs directly in the construction sector, and thousands more indirectly throughout the community through the multiplier effect.
If you look at indicators, commodity prices are still strong and look set to continue at historically high levels as the demand from China continues to grow apace, with India more recently coming into the commodities market in a strong fashion. Australia is well placed to take advantage of that continuing commodities boom and the Northern Territory, of course, is well positioned in that regard as well. Not only do we have significant mineral resources, we have been putting in the infrastructure to move it.
The indicators across the board, Madam Speaker, are extremely strong: a positive outlook backed up by organisations such Access Economics, the Housing Industry Association, and groups such as that. It is a very positive outlook for employment and the labour market into the future. As I said at the start, if you want a job in the Northern Territory or, if you are down south and you do not have a job, get here, we will give you one.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016