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Category: Business, Economics and Finance / Government and Politics

Business confidence in Tasmania on the rise despite employment drop

Tuesday, 10 Jan 2017 09:21:10 | Annah Fromberg

Peter Rathjen across the road from new UTas building (936 ABC Hobart: Leon Compton)

It will be a positive year for the Tasmanian economy, the state's main business lobby says, with business confidence on the rise despite a drop in employment.

The Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has released its latest survey of business expectations collated during the December quarter of 2016.

Chief executive Michael Bailey said it showed confidence was building in all regions, especially in the north-west, from a particularly low base.

"Even businesses in the north, which we've been worried about for some time, are more positive which is a really exciting thing," he said.

"I suspect that probably reflects the CH Smith development and other developments through the city of Launceston, but it's a bit broader than that because we've also seen participation return in the north as well, so it's a really pleasing result for all regions of Tasmania."

Despite the positivity, the survey showed employment fell slightly in the south from 103,000 to 102,800, continuing a downward trend.

Mr Bailey said the south was the area that was probably the most surprising.

"We're seeing employment decrease and that's an interesting indicator that we need to keep an eye on," he said.

"We know the south has been booming for two or three years now, and that could be the result of some of these major construction jobs starting to come off."

The north has the highest unemployment rate of 7.7 per cent — in 12 month average terms — with the south at 6.4 per cent and the north-west the lowest at 5.8 per cent.

Michael Bailey said the challenge was to continue to improve the employment environment, which would require long-term solutions.

"We need to make sure Tasmanian businesses are profitable, so that they can actually employ people," he said.

"They can only put staff on when they have the demand and the revenue to do that."

He suggested reducing red tape and improving freight and infrastructure would help.

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