A job seeker is seen through a car window as he waits for casual work as a builder outside a hardware store in Cape Town, July 8, 2015.
A job seeker is seen through a car window as he waits for casual work as a builder outside a hardware store in Cape Town, July 8, 2015. South Africa's unemployment rate stands at about 26.4 percent according to Statistics South Africa. Reuters/Mike Hutchings

With the marginal decline in the rate of unemployment across South Australia in December, the state government talked about the upcoming infrastructure projects.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics confirmed on Thursday that the jobless rate saw a downfall to 7.2 percent in December, which was less than 7.3 percent as recorded in November. According to the data, the number of unemployed people in the state amounted to 62,500, which is 1,200 less than in November. The national unemployment rate, however, is still steady at 5.8 percent.

In spite of fractional decline in the jobless rate for the third consecutive month, SA remains the country’s highest percentage of unemployed individuals. Acting Employment Minister Susan Close said that there was nothing to celebrate following the ABS declaration of improved unemployment rate.

Close added that the government had a hope that investing $2.5 billion on housing projects in 2016 would act as a driving force for strengthening the state’s economy. “There are now approximately 8,600 more people employed in South Australia than exactly 12 months ago, and employment increased for both full-time and part-time jobs over the past month,” Adelaide Now quoted the minister as saying. “The number of unemployed people in South Australia has declined for five consecutive months, resulting in almost 5,000 fewer unemployed people.”

Infrastructure Minister Stephen Mullighan said that people who were quitting their jobs in car industry can shift to construction work conveniently. The minister took a tour to the site of River Torrens through to Torrens Road upgrade of South Road, which is due to complete until 2018 end. The tour came following the day after components organisation SME led to 140 job losses.

Mullighan also said that the infrastructure projects were providing thousands of job opportunities. “It gives companies that may be transitioning out of those industries where work is drying up, it gives those workers an opportunity to access new jobs in this construction sector – to be retained, to be re-skilled,” the ABC quoted him as saying.

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