YOUTH —
UNEMPLOYMENT
540. Mrs L.M. HARVEY to the Premier:
I have a supplementary question. Can
the Premier outline to the house what the government's youth and
overall jobs targets are; and, if not, why not?
Mr M.
McGOWAN replied:
Obviously, our aim is to drive the
unemployment rate down to as low as possible, but we are in a pandemic that has
impacted the entire world. I do not know whether the Leader of the Opposition
listened to what I just said. We have the strongest employment growth of all
mainland states and territories. A total of 19 200 Western Australians found
work in July. Since the start of the pandemic, we have recovered 41 000 jobs.
We have easily the highest participation rate in the nation and it is growing,
which obviously impacts the figures. Clearly, the situation is difficult for
many people and many businesses across Western Australia, but we are doing all
we can to recover the situation, which obviously has been created by a pandemic
that was outside our control.