SA Economy

[Waewick]

Absolutely. But to take it a bit further, I've always imagined 2 million would be a perfect population for Adelaide. With urban infill and more medium density housing.... like we're seeing now. Also, why not set the target big and go for a CBD population of say, 100k in the next 30 years. It could handle it easily.

Another nice to have would be a decent sized regional city, in the 100 - 200k range. It's been talked about in the forum before, I've often though Port Lincoln would be a good location for this, even more so since I've visited the Eyre Peninsula twice in the past 12 months. I'm surprised the population is as sparse as it is being such a nice part of Australia. No shortage of economic activity over there too.

Port Lincoln or Mount Gambier just try and get them growing.

I think the Riverland is also ripe for investment, close to the Eastern States, infrastructure in place. Just needs leadership

2m gets us our Federal Seat back , so more politicians interested, urban centres get a good mix 2pp

Just need to political willpower

What jobs are an extra 300,000 people going to do in Mt Gambier and Pt Lincoln?

If we have so many jobs available while having high unemployment particularly youth unemployment, the focus should be on getting the people we have already working not bringing in more people from abroad.

Its easy to brush it aside as Will did and say people don't want to work. Thats fine, but that doesn't address the issues that exist.
So, how long before those new arrivals, or the families they start here end up in the same boat. It will happen, and it is already happening.

As cities grow they become self sufficient and jobs that don't exist now become in demand.

The idea is to invest, put Govt workers, fed and state, incentivise other industries to start setting up there, Plenty of levers

I'm with you on training locals, but this city has for too long about preserving jobs rather than creating new ones and the benefits of progress.

I don't have an answer though, does everyone want to learn new skills? How do you make a people want to learn new skills.

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[1NEEDS2POST]

we could solve the "housing crisis" in six months by having all these unemployed youths building houses.

Sounds like a great idea. Pity everyone in power is too lazy and incompetent to do it.

[SBD]

we could solve the "housing crisis" in six months by having all these unemployed youths building houses.

Sounds like a great idea. Pity everyone in power is too lazy and incompetent to do it.

Thanks for the credit. My intended point is that not all "workers" can do "any job". I don't think I want to live in a house built by untrained amateurs - especially the ones who didn't want to work in the first place. I don't want to drive a car built by them over a bridge or through a tunnel designed by them, either.

Rightly or wrongly, we have moved on a long way from the 1930s images of queues of men hoping to pick a day's unskilled piece-work to be able to feed the family that day.

[Jaymz]

Yep, January wasn't the best for employment figures. From Todays online version of The Advertiser.....

SA jobless rate worst in country in January
SA basked in glowing unemployment numbers over December – but it’s all come crashing down in January.

Chris Russell
Follow
@ChrisRussellBiz
February 17, 2022 - 1:56PM

South Australia has been given the unwanted title of having the worst unemployment rate in the country.

In January, the unemployment rate was 4.8 per cent, seasonally adjusted, a huge increase on the 3.9 per cent rate in December, according to an Australian Bureau of Statistics report on Thursday.

Nationally, the rate remained steady at 4.2 per cent, short of Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s hope of a rate “with a 3 in front of it”.

SA’s disappointing result was because 7300 fewer people were employed but the participation rate remained the same.

Men were worst affected – with 12,780 fewer employed, including a loss of more than 7000 full-time positions.

Women gained nearly 5500 jobs, with nearly 2000 of those positions full-time.

In December, SA had the second best unemployment rate after WA and equal to Tasmania.

Innovation and Skills Minister David Pisoni said SA was holding up well despite the effect of the Omicron wave in January.

“We knew the health restrictions put in place to control Omicron would have an impact on employment levels but for the unemployment rate to be just 4.8 per cent right in the middle of those restrictions is an incredibly strong result,” Mr Pisoni said.

“With health restrictions easing significantly, the latest support package for hospitality and more people returning to work in the CBD I’m confident there will be further strong jobs growth in the coming months.”

Opposition treasury spokesman Stephen Mullighan said SA was faring far worse than other states which were also hit by Omicron.

“That shows we haven’t managed the pandemic as well as other states,” he said.

Businesses had been plagued by uncertainty, undermining confidence to invest and employ, Mr Mullighan said.

The ABS estimates 875,300 people are employed in SA.

With population growth, the number of employed should increase steadily creating ongoing records in how many people have jobs.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the jobs’ market has been extremely volatile. The abnormal conditions have caused the ABS to suspend publishing trend data because they would be unreliable.

Property Council SA executive director Daniel Gannon said SA was still attracting new businesses.

“In the past week alone, companies like Quintessential Equity, PwC, CommBank, Salesforce and Nextdc have announced significant investments in our state,” Mr Gannon said.

The next ABS labour force report is due to be published on March 17 – two days before the state election.

[Waewick]

I find unemployment numbers odd.

I don't believe we ever got below 4% and I don't believe it's only 4.8%

It's all smoke and mirrors with each party picking their favourite number that makes them look good.


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[[Shuz]]

4.8% is "amazing" let's be real, in the historic scheme of things.

But the common plebs who believe this as fact and don't do their research about how it's calculated and what it actually means, bless them. It's not the worst, at all, considering the circumstances were in, it's actually a fucking good number to achieve. It's just politicians trying to get an inch bigger than they actually are.

[Waewick]

4.8% is "amazing" let's be real, in the historic scheme of things.

But the common plebs who believe this as fact and don't do their research about how it's calculated and what it actually means, bless them. It's not the worst, at all, considering the circumstances were in, it's actually a fucking good number to achieve. It's just politicians trying to get an inch bigger than they actually are.

That's fair, the measure is the measure so from a historical basis its great

0.9% change is bugger all, I mean 95.1% of people are still employed under that measure.

You just look like a moron when you parrot on about being 2nd best and 2 weeks later you are the worst.

Govts should treat these numbers like opposition parties do.

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[rev]

Port Lincoln or Mount Gambier just try and get them growing.

I think the Riverland is also ripe for investment, close to the Eastern States, infrastructure in place. Just needs leadership

2m gets us our Federal Seat back , so more politicians interested, urban centres get a good mix 2pp

Just need to political willpower

What jobs are an extra 300,000 people going to do in Mt Gambier and Pt Lincoln?

If we have so many jobs available while having high unemployment particularly youth unemployment, the focus should be on getting the people we have already working not bringing in more people from abroad.

Its easy to brush it aside as Will did and say people don't want to work. Thats fine, but that doesn't address the issues that exist.
So, how long before those new arrivals, or the families they start here end up in the same boat. It will happen, and it is already happening.

As cities grow they become self sufficient and jobs that don't exist now become in demand.

The idea is to invest, put Govt workers, fed and state, incentivise other industries to start setting up there, Plenty of levers

I'm with you on training locals, but this city has for too long about preserving jobs rather than creating new ones and the benefits of progress.

I don't have an answer though, does everyone want to learn new skills? How do you make a people want to learn new skills.

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Personally I think some on the dole are a lost cause, quite a lot of them actually. But I still believe there are many, a lot more then the bludgers, who would take up the opportunity if given the chance.
A lot of people who are employed, like I assume most if not all of us here, assume it's relatively easy to just get off your ass and go find a job. It's not. It hasn't been easy to gain employment for decades. Not since the waves of European migrants after WW2..when Australia actually had a labour shortage. We don't have a shortage today.
We have high levels of unemployment. Might not be high compared to other parts of the world, but it's still too high. Particularly youth unemployment as I pointed out.

How do you fix it?
Well, how many schools actually have any significant focus on trades and other types of jobs, besides following the curriculum, getting good grades and applying to go to uni? I know people who have gone to uni and don't even work in the fields they studied for, because the jobs just don't exist. So what's the point?

The education system is fucked. It needs to be changed/fixed.
There should be an equal amount of focus given to trades and other sectors that don't require a university degree.

We might not be able to fix or change much in the way of the current people on the dole. But what can be done is to ensure that fewer and fewer kids grow up and end up on the dole by giving them as many opportunities as possible.

There's absolutely no point in bringing in migrants, skilled or not, if we don't address the problems and issues to begin with. Because they will have families, their kids and their kids will grow up and guess what, many will end up in the same predicament that many here already are in. That just makes the problem worse.

Bringing in skilled migrants is just a band aid solution. Nothing more nothing less. It addresses a need in the present, but doesn't address why that need exists and doesn't address future needs.

[SBD]

St Patrick’s at Elizabeth was purpose built to focus on trades. My nephew finished high school there and is now an apprentice electrician.

[Jaymz]

With regards to unemployment, it is usually viewed by Government that full employment is when the rate hits 4 percent or below... once it reaches that point it is extremely difficult to drop it any further. You would also have to question the criteria (how many paid hours per week) for someone to be considered employed.

I'm extremely sceptical of the current unemployment rate in general, with overseas tourism basically non-existent, plus month-long lock downs in both NSW and Victoria over the past 18 months.

Unemployment is also affected by things like the participation rate, interstate migration and the likes. It is possible for the total number of employed people to increase within a particular state or territory but the unemployment rate also increases.

[[Shuz]]

Basically there's two main quirks to the unemployment rate; one is that anyone working just one hour a week, is considered employed. And secondly, it doesn't take into consideration anyone who is unemployed, but is not registered with or claiming income from Centrelink.

The other big problem in this country is underemployment, there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people who are employed, but want more hours to work. Wages growth quite simply has just not been anywhere near adequate enough the last decade, nor is it keeping up with inflation, so technically we've regressed, paying for more with less money.

[rev]

SA population shrinks as 'brain drain' resumes
NEWS
South Australia’s population is shrinking as the number of people moving interstate hits a record high, according to the latest ABS data.

The figures for the three months to the end of September, released last week, show that South Australia’s population fell by 609 people in the September quarter to 1,772,800.

It is only the second time the state’s population has gone backwards in a quarter, following the loss of 41 people in the September 2020 quarter.

The data is a result of net overseas migration of -1385 for the quarter and net interstate migration of -191.

This was exacerbated by a natural increase in the population of just 967 people, down from 1546 in the June quarter and the second lowest since the ABS started the series in 1981.

The net migration figure was the worst quarterly result on record.

Interstate arrivals in the September quarter reached an all-time high of 9877 up from 8028 in June.

However, this was outstripped by the number of people leaving SA for interstate, which reached 10,088 – also a record.

While the net quarterly loss of 191 people to interstate is well short of the 1000 people who on average left for other states prior to the pandemic, it shows the former Marshall government’s claim to have “reversed the brain drain” was temporary.

Migration Solutions CEO Mark Glazbrook said the net overseas migration numbers and the increase in the number of people leaving SA for interstate “was still a big concern”.

He said he could not see the net overseas migration figure bouncing back any time soon as international arrivals needed to be in Australia for 12 months to count as a migration increase.

“It’s only going to get worse – we’ll definitely have more people coming back into the country like backpackers and international students, which will be good, but the state government continues to run programs based on qualifications and skills but they don’t necessarily have a job lined up when they arrive,” Glazbrook said.

Unemployment rates in South Australia have been at historic lows during the pandemic, exposing labour shortages that have sparked calls from the Committee for Adelaide to increase the state’s population to 2 million by 2030.

Glazbrook said the positive increase of 567 people in net interstate migration for the 12 months to September 30 period was not really a significant number compared to the thousands leaving each year before the pandemic.

He said the Marshall government’s claim that it had reversed the brain drain was somewhat of a misrepresentation of the statistics.

“I think COVID reversed the brain drain,” Glazbrook said.

“And we’re talking about a period in time when the two biggest destinations where people leave South Australia to live – Melbourne and Sydney – were both in lockdown.

“The government did well, it was a safe place to live, but you could migrate to Melbourne and be in lockdown for 12 months or you could live quite freely in South Australia and I think a lot of people chose to come here where it was easier to live and work.

“Now that borders have reopened we are starting to see that trend change and I would expect that to continue.”

Nationwide, Australia’s population grew by just 12,100 in the quarter to 25,750,198 people at September 30.

For the 12 months to the end of September, Australia’s population grew by 68,900 and SA’s population was up by 2600.

Victoria lost 32,700 people and Queensland added 57,800 residents.

For the year, South Australia had a natural population increase of 5448 as births outnumbered deaths by 19,602 to 14,154.

But overseas departures of 9132 were significantly higher than arrivals of 5674 and interstate arrivals for the year slightly outnumbered departures by 31,450 to 30,889.

https://indaily.com.au/news/2022/03/23/ ... n-resumes/

[[Shuz]]

Good thing Marshall didn't get re elected as he would have had egg on his face after having repeatedly said throughout the election campaign that he had stopped the brain drain.

[gnrc_louis]

Good thing Marshall didn't get re elected as he would have had egg on his face after having repeatedly said throughout the election campaign that he had stopped the brain drain.

Was always such a silly comment on his behalf, when clearly any change was likely due to Covid and unlikely to be a longer term trend.

[Jaymz]

The latest Commsec State Of The States economic rankings have been released and S.A has slipped to equal fifth with the ACT.

I find that result a bit odd as South Australia has topped the rankings for both dwelling starts and construction work done, we have not
once topped even one of the categories in my memory of this report. Anyways

https://www.commsec.com.au/content/dam/ ... il2022.pdf