SUE NEALES
May 08, 2009 04:00am
RECESSION pain hit Tasmania with a resounding thud yesterday as new figures showed 4400 workers lost their jobs in April.
More than 15,300 Tasmanians are now joining the dole queue, the highest number in three years and up steeply from the 10,900 jobless in March.
The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed the unemployment rate in Tasmania had skyrocketed from 4.4 per cent to 6.2 per cent.
A higher proportion of Tasmanians are now out of work than in any other state.
In contrast, the national unemployment rate for April eased slightly from 5.7 per cent to 5.4 per cent, largely on the back of job gains in NSW.
Treasurer Michael Aird yesterday tried to make the best of the shock figures.
Mr Aird said the universally used seasonally adjusted unemployment figures were unreliable.
He said the severity of Tasmania's plunge into the jobs abyss was less if the alternative ABS "trend" unemployment rate of 5.3 per cent for April was used.
But even these figures showed there had been a 21 per cent increase in the number of out-of-work Tasmanians since the start of the year.
Liberal leader Will Hodgman said he refused to stand by and pat Michael Aird and the Government on the back as Tasmanians lost their jobs.
And the Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry warned the real situation was probably worse, as many Tasmanians accepted shorter working weeks and fewer casual hours in a bid to save their jobs.
The Government conceded worse was yet to come.
The Federal Government is expected to predict that national unemployment could exceed 8 per cent by the end of 2010 when it hands down its Budget on Tuesday.
Mr Aird said it was clear the dire impact of the global recession was "washing over" Tasmania's shores, with the local mining industry the first to bear its brunt.
But he described the economy as "holding up" reasonably well.
"But there is a human dimension to this," Mr Aird said.
"We have to be disappointed about every job loss."
TCCI chief economist Richard Dowling said the latest figures showed Tasmanian families were now feeling the pain of the global recession.
"The effect of the economic slowdown has been known for some time," Mr Dowling said.
"But it is only just starting to show through in the employment data.
"The priority now must be to ensure that those losing their jobs do not fall into the queue of long-term unemployment."
Economists had expected the national jobless rate to rise to 5.9 per cent.