Today’s ABS Labour Force data has once again confirmed the strength in our economic recovery with employment now back to pre-pandemic levels, similar to January last year, and the lowest unemployment rate of any State.

Three thousand Tasmanians returned to work in January with the number of jobs growing by 1.2 per cent, the second highest monthly growth rate in the country, and higher than national growth.

Of the 257,100 jobs in Tasmania right now, there are almost 4000 more full-time jobs than January last year, and pleasingly of this increase, around 1000 of these are female full-time jobs.

Importantly, our unemployment rate fell significantly by over 1 percentage point in the month, and at 5.9 per cent is now the lowest of all the states, and has returned to levels seen in January last year.

More Tasmanians returning to work means our economy will continue to grow and recover, underpinned by growing consumer and business confidence, retail trade, and housing investment across the State supported by our successful HomeBuilder program.

These results do not happen by accident and are evidence that our Plan is clearly working. But we know we have more to do. That’s why we will continue to focus on growing our economy while managing this pandemic and getting more Tasmanians back into work as we rebuild a stronger Tasmania.