Cairns unemployment figures released.

 Media Release

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has implemented a series of changes to labour force reporting which have taken effect from today's data release.
This includes a change to the labour market regions resulting in a finer level of data being released. For our community, this means data is now reported for 'Cairns' which is a change from the previously used 'Far North Queensland' region.
The new formula has also been applied to previously collected data. This shows the December 2013 unemployment rate for Cairns at 9.2%.
"We still have a way to go in strengthening our economy and reaching an acceptable rate," Senator McLucas said.
"It still seems to be rather patchy with some industries dong well and others finding it really tough."
Senator McLucas said it was critical that all levels of government continued to invest in the Far North in 2014.
"We've seen more than our fair share of job losses in the last year or so in Cairns, so we need some surety that we will not be going through this again when the Abbott Government's Commission of Audit is handed down."
"Job and service cuts will only hinder our recovery and rebuilding effort."
Senator McLucas said last week's release of the national labour force figures should be a wake-up call for the government.
The ABS data showed the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased by 0.1 per cent from a revised 5.9 per cent to six per cent in January.
The last time Australia's unemployment rate was six per cent was in July 2003 when Mr Abbott was Employment Minister in the Howard Government.

A further 7,100 full-time jobs were lost across the economy in January, taking to 63,300 the number of full-time jobs lost since Mr Abbott was elected in September.