McGowan's jobs promises trashed by pandemic restrictions as Labor's targets canned
Premier Mark McGowan's jobs growth promises have been trashed by the global coronavirus pandemic, with government restrictions on economic activity pushing WA's unemployment rate to 6 per cent.
In the past two months 70,700 West Australians have lost jobs, according to the latest ABS employment figures.
The number of West Australians in jobs has returned to levels not seen since before the last state election.Credit:Bloomberg
This returns the number of people in work to levels near those reported in March 2017 when Labor was elected to office.
But the total number people looking for work only jumped from 75,700 people in February to 82,800 in April, meaning tens of thousands of people have dropped out of the WA workforce altogether.
Across the nation, Australia has suffered its single largest monthly fall in the number of people holding a job, with a record 594,000 drop in the number of workers through April.
The national unemployment rate spiked a full percentage point to 6.2 per cent last month.
In February 2019, the state government promised it would generate 150,000 new jobs by 2023-24 when the Premier's Our Priorities: Sharing Prosperity policy was released, meeting a 2017 election commitment to introduce key performance indicators for government.
But a note published on the Department of Premier and Cabinet's website said the targets had been "deferred indefinitely while the state government focuses on its response to COVID-19".
The targets which have been suspended, also included 30,000 more regional jobs and promises to reduce rates youth reoffending and Aboriginal imprisonment, more students studying STEM courses and more homes near public transport nodes.
Labor went to the 2017 election promising the creation of 50,000 new jobs.
Last week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison released federal Treasury forecasts estimating WA's economy would shrink by 1.7 per cent, wiping off the increase of activity generated over the 12 months to December 2019.
A massive 224,500 of the state's 1.36 million jobs would be lost, dwarfing Mr McGowan's promise of new jobs over the next term of government.