LOCAL unemployment has risen once again, with new figures showing around 1000 people lost their job last month.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released its detailed labour force data for June on Thursday, one week after it revealed South Australia holds the highest unemployment rate in the country at 8.8 per cent.
As expected, unemployment in the Adelaide North area – including Gawler, Elizabeth, Munno Para, Two Well and Mallala – rose as well, from 8.4 per cent to 8.7 per cent.
It is only the second time since September 1999, when the ABS began recording localised unemployment statistics, South Australia’s jobless rate has been greater than the North’s.
Around 1000 people lost their job last month, with the number of employed people falling to 199,900.
Women were hit the hardest by this drop, accounting for 900 of the lost jobs.
It means approximately 4000 people have now lost their job since the start of the pandemic, around 900 of which are now listed as unemployed.
The ABS considers an unemployed person to be someone without work who is searching for it. The figure excludes people who have left the workforce voluntarily and are not seeking employment, such as carers.
Salvation Army South Australia and Northern Territory public relations secretary Mark Foyle said the charity’s support services were seeing more new faces who had never sought assistance before.
“It’s distressing for the people who are coming to us who have never thought they were going to be in this position,” he said.
“All of a sudden, back in March and April, they were thrown into a position that was completely foreign to them.
“It also shows that through no fault of people’s actions, anybody can end up in strife.”
Mr Foyle added Christmas was shaping up to be a busy time for the Salvo’s outreach programs, as the end or reduction in JobKeeper and JobSeeker payments in December corresponds with an annual uptake in services.
“Christmas brings its own financial pressures, so we’re going to have a whole lot of people who are needing assistance and are looking at a bleak Christmas,” he said.
“We already have an increased number of people who come to us for Christmas support, so we would expect that to be much bigger than normal.”
The latest unemployment figures came the same day Federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced Australia’s budget deficit would reach $184.5 billion in the upcoming 2020/21 budget as a result of COVID-19 pandemic support and spending.
Speaking on Monday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said creating jobs would drive the country’s economic recovery.
“This is an Australian plan, based on Australian values, based on Australian challenges and Australian solutions and that will continue to guide our efforts, practically dealing with the problems that we face,” he said.
“We are still very much in the midst of it. We are still very much in the fight over it, against this pandemic and the impact it is having. But we also have a very strong plan to see us recover strongly on the other side.”