Western Australia’s unemployment rate has remained 5.9 per cent in July in trend terms and youth unemployment has risen to 12.4 per cent, up from 11.2 per cent – the fourth highest in Australia and almost a full per cent higher than the national rate.

There are 134,700 underemployed West Australians who want more work – up 2.6 per cent since June in trend terms – and almost 85,000 West Australians are unemployed.

Today’s figures come on the back of our latest WA-Super-CCI Business Confidence Survey, which revealed that WA’s business confidence has fallen for the second quarter in a row, down 13 per cent since December 2018.

Businesses are doing it tough in WA, particularly small and medium-sized businesses. With four out of five WA jobs created by business, there is no mistaking how critical their success is, not just to WA’s economy but to protecting West Australians livelihoods.

WA still has the highest payroll tax burden – a literal tax on jobs– of any state in the nation, making it more expensive to create jobs here than anywhere else in Australia.

If the State Government is serious about achieving its 150,000 jobs target and reducing unemployment for West Australians, they must now reduce this tax on WA jobs.

CCI urges the Government to reduce the payroll tax burden for small business as a priority to boost job creation and turn our State’s high unemployment rate around.