Hot on the heels of Tasmania’s unemployment rate dropping below the national average, the latest Deloitte Access Economics Report shows continued growth in Tasmania as it is ``chugging away at a relatively healthy rate’’.
The report highlights an improvement in the state’s jobs market which since mid-2016 ``has moved out of a sluggish phase to close in on national rates of employment growth for the first time in a couple of years’’.
This corresponds with the latest ABS unemployment statistics which confirmed 5100 jobs have been created since the Hodgman Liberal Government came to office.
Population growth has consistently been on the rise for the past four years and is narrowing the gap with the national rate, which in turn is improving the picture on the supply of workers which has been ``accompanied by an improvement in the demand for workers’’.
Wage growth is also among the fastest in the nation, behind only South Australia.
Retail and tourism also remain strong and are important sectors the Hodgman Government has worked hard to support in order to create jobs growth, with the report stating: ``… rates of retail turnover growth faster than the national average for a year and a half – pretty good going, and even better still when you remember that the state’s population growth may have picked up, but that it is still substantially below that of Australia as a whole’’.
The boom in visitor numbers to Tasmania is supporting regional areas of the state, our significant ongoing investment in infrastructure is helping to support thousands of jobs, while the record-breaking run in the retail sector of late is a sign of increasing confidence in the economy.
``The lower Australian dollar has generated good news for the recreation sector in the state, with room occupancy rates rapidly closing in on the national average for the first time in many years,’’ the report states.
But, there is still a long way to go.
That is why job creation and economic growth remains our number one priority, and why we have implemented a Northern Economic Stimulus package, so that we can continue to grow the economy and create jobs.