STATE TOPS FOR JOBS

QUEENSLAND has emerged as the nation’s employment engine room with 18,200 full-time jobs created in the state during May.

The seasonally adjusted figure reveals that Queensland accounted for four out of every five full-time jobs created across Australia.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has revealed the national unemployment rate remained steady at 5.8 per cent, seasonally adjusted, with 717,100 people out of work – up 3200 since April.

The figure was impacted by the loss of 22,000 jobs in NSW which saw the state’s unemployment rate edge higher, from 5.4 per cent to 5.7 per cent.

However, the jobless rate in Queensland dipped from 6.3 per cent to 6.2 per cent.

The Queensland Government has attributed the growth to its policies which it says are making it easier to do business in Queensland.

Treasurer Tim Nicholls says this has led to more than 60,000 Queenslanders gaining jobs in the last 12 months, on both the seasonally adjusted and trend measures.

“Growth has continued over the last 12 months with more jobs created in Queensland than any other state over the last year,” Nicholls says.

“More than 50 per cent of all jobs created in Australia over the past year were created in Queensland, using both trend and seasonally adjusted terms.

“The trend measure shows an increase of 60,400 jobs in the year to May 2014, while seasonally adjusted figures show an increase of 60,800 jobs.”

Nicholls says trend employment in Queensland also has risen for 13 consecutive months.

“While 6800 trend jobs were created in Queensland in the last month, the trend unemployment rate did increase slightly to 6.3 per cent, reflecting a strengthening participation rate.

“The state’s economy is on the cusp of strong growth but not all Queenslanders are sharing in that growth yet and we know there’s more to do.”

Tasmania has the highest unemployment rate in Australia at 7.5 per cent, down from 7.6 per cent in April, while Western Australia’s figure edged to 5 per cent from 4.9 per cent.