I don’t always look at the headline monthly ABS figures because they tend to be a crock of methodological bulldust. But this cluster of statistics as reported by InDaily is worth comment.

According to the ABS, the unemployment rate in Western Adelaide fell to 4.4 per cent from 5.5 per cent in April. It’s a MIRACLE because Western Adelaide is one of the poorest areas in greater Adelaide.

The decline of manufacturing over the last 30 years have hit it hard and plenty of ex-Holden workers live there too. It’s rich in public housing and poor in jobs. Real unemployment is closer to 10-12 per cent.

The ABS figures are laughable because (a), they comprises the number of people returning to casual work, (b) it reflects the ridiculous ABS ‘one hour per week means you’re employed’ definition and doesn’t factor in that tens of thousands of migrants (many of whom didn’t have jobs or were under employed) have not only fled the state but left the country. About 300,000 nationally since last count.

The SA labour market is shrinking. Many of my clients come from the western and northern suburbs of Adelaide. I know the demographics intimately.

I know many of the large employers and the employment situation is extremely dire. Poverty in the western suburbs is endemic.

Hundreds – if not thousands – of small businesses have folded in the last ten years.

To claim real unemployment in Western Adelaide is 4.4 per cent fosters a Pollyanna delusion and it shows the ABS and the reporters who report this tripe, have no idea.