WA Economic Profile for October 2017
Main updates this month
Labour market
- Total employment rose 3.6 per cent (48,066) through the year to September 2017, with rising full-time employment (up 6 per cent or 50,349) offsetting falling part‑time employment (down 0.5 percent or 2,283).
- The unemployment rate of 5.7 per cent in September 2017 was below the 5.9 per cent in the previous month and 6.0 per cent a year ago.
- The decrease in the unemployment rate in September 2017 was due to higher full-time employment (up 4,465) and part-time employment (up 3,831) and lower unemployment (down 2,271).
- The participation rate rose 0.2 percentage points to 68.2 per cent in September 2017, increasing the size of the labour force by 6,024 people.
Other
- The value of construction activity fell across all broad sectors in 2016-17, including:
- Residential building down 26 per cent to $6.6 billion;
- Non-residential building down 5 per cent to $4.5 billion;
- Heavy industry engineering down 35 per cent to $17.5 billion; and
- Other engineering down 24 per cent to $7.0 billion.
- Western Australia had $6.5 billion of building activity in the pipeline in the June quarter 2017, below the $7.0 billion in the previous quarter.
The latest WA Economic Profile will be available on the Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation’s website soon.