October 29, 2024: Western Australia has risen to top spot on the CommSec State of the States report, cementing its status as the country’s best performing economy.
The report ranks each state and territory across eight economic indicators, with Western Australia ranked first for retail spending, unemployment and population growth.
The report noted Western Australia has the strongest job market, with trend unemployment 29.5 per cent below the decade-average level.
Additionally, Western Australia performed strongly for plant and equipment investment and housing finance ranking second on both indicators, and also led all jurisdictions for new vehicle sales.
For a fourth straight survey, WA has held an outright lead on economic momentum, based on annual growth rates, with the strongest performance on construction work, population growth and dwelling starts.
The report follows recent labour force data showing WA’s unemployment rate fell to 3.6 per cent in September 2024, the lowest of the states and well below the national rate of 4.1 per cent.
It represents the equal longest period of sustained low unemployment in the 46 years of data reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, with WA’s unemployment rate remaining below four per cent for 35 of the past 36 months.
The CommSec State of the States report also comes off the back of WA’s 2023-24 Annual Report on State Finances released a month ago, which reinforced Western Australia’s financial position continues to be the strongest in the nation.
Responding to the report, Treasurer Rita Saffioti said, “This report all but confirms what Western Australians already know – that our State is the strongest and has led the country over the past five years, and comes off the back of the September labour force data released earlier this month, which again highlighted the continued dominance of our economy.”
“Importantly, the report noted Western Australia has the strongest jobs market, which we know is the best way to continue growing our economy and of course, for Western Australians to support their families,” she added