FULL TIME JOBS DOWN

JOBS data released by the ABS shows full time employment is down for the second consecutive month.

The latest national employment statistics indicate full-time jobs have been cut back in favour of part-time positions.

A spike in part-time jobs across the country has inflated the ABS labour force figures to show little movement, despite 22,000 full-time jobs being lost in May.

While the unemployment rate remained steady at 4.9 per cent, almost 30,000 new part-time jobs were created across Australia to replace the full-time jobs lost.

Around 3 million people across the country occupy part-time positions, a growing percentage on the 11.4million employed in full-time roles.

The ABS stats also show monthly aggregate hours worked in May are up 6.4 million hours to 1.6 billion hours. Queensland State Treasurer Andrew Fraser says Queensland's jobs growth outpaced the nation in May.

Fraser says the state’s apparent economic recovery is driving jobs growth, but also that the Bligh Government’s jobs target has been downgraded from 31,300 last month to 26,400 this month.

“The state economy has generated positive jobs growth for three straight months, including 2,000 being added in the month of May, while the nation as a whole generated only 1,800 new jobs,” says Fraser.

“Despite the floods and cyclone, Queensland has now generated more jobs than WA over the last 12 months. These strong jobs growth numbers show that the economy is continuing to generate jobs and power out of the damage done by the natural disasters.”

Fraser is also spruiking the fact that Queensland’s unemployment rate has been reduced to 5.3 per cent – still 0.4 per cent higher than the national average.