South Australia unemployment rate worsens official attitude cautiously optimistic

South Australia's unemployment rate is still rising, but it no longer ranks first in the country. Australia's official unemployment rate fell to 5.6 percent in August, while South Australia's unemployment rate rose from 6.3 percent to 6.8 percent, according to the Australian-Guangzhou News (ABC). The state's unemployment rate is the highest in the country, at 7.2%. South Australia Employment Director Mach (Kyam Maher) said: "[South Australia] has taken off this annoying hat, Tasmania is now the highest unemployment state in the country, but we will still do our best to ensure that the state's employment growth." He said state goverment was optimistic despite rising unemployment as trend rates continued to improve. "over the past 12 months, we have seen 9200 more jobs in South Australia and 1 million more hours of work in South Australia than it was 12 months ago," he said. This year's state budget includes A $109 million in job incentives to subsidize the company's hiring of new employees. "when some small and medium-sized businesses consider hiring one or two more employees, the A $10,000 grant will encourage them to increase their employees, otherwise they would not have done so," Mach said. But opposition employment spokesman Wengelde (Corey Wingard) said South Australia still has the highest unemployment rate in inland areas. "We can't glorify the fact that unemployment in South Australia is rising, we're still at the bottom." "the 6.8% unemployment rate in South Australia is not a very good number," he said. Mr Wengelder said Labour had promised to add one hundred thousand jobs, but only 11140 had been redeemed. He said South Australia still faces major employment challenges in steel and automotive manufacturing. "We know there is some trouble with Arrium and, of course, the Horton (Holden) problem, which will be closed by the end of this year and all next year, which is another big problem for South Australians," he said.