ABS head of labour statistics Bjorn Jarvis said the data showed most state and territory payroll jobs were at or above the levels of 2020, except for Tasmania and Victoria, but some industries were yet to return to the same levels as last year.
He said accommodation and food services remained the most affected industry, and noted payroll jobs in arts and recreation services, one of the industries most affected by pandemic lockdowns, had almost fully recovered by mid-March 2021.Information media and telecommunications remains the next worst-affected sector, with jobs down 9.2 per cent, followed by transport, postal and warehousing, which is still down 6.4 per cent over the year.
Public administration and safety jobs were up 8.6 per cent over the year, ABS data shows, followed by financial and insurance services jobs up 6.2 per cent. Australian Tourism Industry Council executive director Simon Westaway said the labour force data showed there had been a “lack of recovery” for the sector. “Our industry should not be seen as an exercise in economic remodelling,” Mr Westaway said.“Our industry will retain a laser focus on the need for tightly targeted support to help aid specific needs of sustainable tourism enterprises. This will lead into this federal budget and quite clearly will need to go beyond [it],” he said.
NAB Markets Research economist Taylor Nugent said the latest jobs improvement was broadly aligned with other upbeat measures of the labour market, but noted it pre-dated the end of JobKeeper this week. “We will have to wait until April to start to gauge the impact,” he said.
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