Mr WARREN - 2008-06-12
Over recent weeks, figures have been released showing the strength of the Territory economy. Many Territory families are most concerned about jobs - jobs for themselves and their children well into the future. Can you please advise the House whether the strong economy is flowing through to more jobs for Territorians and, if so, what are the future job prospects for our community?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I am very happy to report to the House that in the Territory there are, indeed, jobs to be had. In fact, we are probably suffering from a lack of readily available workforce. This week, the ANZ produced their job series, which shows, year on year, we have increased job advertisements by 17%. This compares to a minus-2.2% nationwide. Once again, the Territory is bucking the national trend.
In addition, today, unemployment for the month of May came in at 3.6%, a remarkably good figure, which shows the vast majority of Territorians are in work. We acknowledge there is volatility in our figures, but the trend is going in the right direction. The figures also reveal that 110 271 Territorians are in work. As members would know, this does not include the fly-in/fly-out workers or Defence Force personnel who are not counted in our labour market figures, so the real workforce is probably several thousand more than those figures. Importantly, the participation rate in the workforce sits at around 72.3%, one of the highest in the nation.
Given our predicted gross Territory growth of 6.6% and our population growth of 2.4% in the labour market, jobs for all looks set to remain very strong. That is very good news for Territorians, very good news for familles. There are jobs to be had. We have very low unemployment figures. The benefits of our strong economy are showing through in these figures as flowing right through to Territory families.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I am very happy to report to the House that in the Territory there are, indeed, jobs to be had. In fact, we are probably suffering from a lack of readily available workforce. This week, the ANZ produced their job series, which shows, year on year, we have increased job advertisements by 17%. This compares to a minus-2.2% nationwide. Once again, the Territory is bucking the national trend.
In addition, today, unemployment for the month of May came in at 3.6%, a remarkably good figure, which shows the vast majority of Territorians are in work. We acknowledge there is volatility in our figures, but the trend is going in the right direction. The figures also reveal that 110 271 Territorians are in work. As members would know, this does not include the fly-in/fly-out workers or Defence Force personnel who are not counted in our labour market figures, so the real workforce is probably several thousand more than those figures. Importantly, the participation rate in the workforce sits at around 72.3%, one of the highest in the nation.
Given our predicted gross Territory growth of 6.6% and our population growth of 2.4% in the labour market, jobs for all looks set to remain very strong. That is very good news for Territorians, very good news for familles. There are jobs to be had. We have very low unemployment figures. The benefits of our strong economy are showing through in these figures as flowing right through to Territory families.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016