Page 4201 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 23 October 2019
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gone backwards by 5.2 per cent nationally. Total state final demand through the year for the ACT was nearly three times that of the Australian growth rate.
We are in a position now, when we look at the most recent labour force data, where not only do we have the lowest unemployment rate of all jurisdictions but we are seeing the greatest increase in employment. We now see in September 2019 employment increased in that month by 1,100 people to an all-time record of 235,000 Canberrans in employment. Through the year to September 2019, employment increased by 7,600 people, or 3.3 per cent.
To put that in simple terms, the employment growth rate in the ACT was the highest of any jurisdiction in Australia, both in the month of September and during the last 12 months. And we did this at a time when our participation rate increased by 0.3 of a percentage point, to 71.3 per cent. Nationally, participation went down. We have seen massive employment growth—the strongest in the nation—off the back of an increase in the participation rate. We now have 8,400 people unemployed. We have 235,000 people employed; 8,400 unemployed.
Our employment is being driven by increases in both full-time employment and part-time employment. Of those 7,600 new jobs created in the year to September 2019, 4,800—more than half—were full time; 2,800 were part time. The increase in the participation rate to 71.3 per cent was due to increases in both the male participation rate—up 0.3 percentage points to 75.2 per cent—and a 0.3 per cent increase for female participation, up to 67.7 per cent. Youth unemployment, decreased by 1.1 percentage points in September, to 8.3 per cent. It is the lowest of all jurisdictions and well below the national average of 11.7 per cent. This is a very strong story on employment, Mr Assistant Speaker.
Most of this employment growth is occurring outside of the public sector. That is flowing through into territory revenues as it relates to that small section of territory businesses that do pay payroll tax—those large national and multinational companies that operate in our city. In the main, they are the main payers of payroll tax in the ACT, and we have seen increased payroll tax receipts. That is a good thing because it is coming off the back of record employment growth. We have all-time record levels of employment in the ACT, the lowest unemployment rate in the nation and the fastest job creation in the nation.
I mentioned before that we have 8,400 unemployed people, according to the ABS. Total job vacancies in the territory increased by 14.1 per cent in the three months to August 2019, to 8,600 vacancies. We now have more job vacancies—8,600—than we have unemployed people in the ACT—8,400. There is no other jurisdiction in this country that is in the position that it has more job vacancies than unemployed people.
Total job vacancies remain above their five year average, at 8,600. The five-year average is about 6,000 vacancies. Through the year, growth in job vacancies has been positive for a consecutive period of 11 quarters, largely driven by growth in private sector job vacancies. Job vacancies are a leading indicator of employment, which reflects a robust employment outlook for the territory over the near term. This is really
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