Ageing population and changes within industries seem to be factors in why Tasmania has lost thousands of jobs despite a relatively strong economy.
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That is according to prominent economist Saul Eslake.
Tasmania lost a net 2800 jobs between June 2018 and June 2019 in trend terms, the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated.
Full-time jobs were hit particularly hard, with a net 6200 lost during the year.
Modest jobs growth resumed in May and June.
The jobs weakness was despite strength in many economic indicators, with CommSec recently rating Tasmania's economy the third strongest in the nation.
"Some of the divergence between overall economic growth and employment is explained by changes in the industry mix," Mr Eslake said.
"The quarterly labour force data tells us that over the year to May, employment increased by a total of just over 12,000 in 10 sectors."
The biggest gains were more than 3200 in primary industries, 2680 in education and training, 1550 in manufacturing and 800 in accommodation and food services.
"These are industries which are widely perceived as doing well," Mr Eslake said.
"However, those gains were slightly more than offset by job losses in nine other sectors, totalling 12,400."
The losses included more than 3800 in construction, nearly 1700 in transport, postal and warehousing, almost 1500 in finance and insurance, almost 1200 in information, media and telecommunications and almost 950 in retail.
"I'm not sure why construction employment has declined so much over the past year," Mr Eslake said.
"It could be because of the completion of some projects, or it could reflect skill shortages."
He said the jobs decline in some other sectors, such as finance, retail and telecoms, probably reflected national trends including technological change and aggressive retail competition.
He said the state labour force shrank by 0.4 per cent in the year to June, despite a 1.4 per cent increase in the working age population.
"That may partly reflect discouraged workers dropping out of the workforce in response to rising unemployment ...," Mr Eslake said.
" ... I would be pretty confident that it also reflects people retiring in proportionately greater numbers ..."
He said some of the increase in Tasmania's population growth rate was due to people of retirement age moving to the state from the mainland.
" ... it could be that shortages of the skills needed by growing industries is adversely affecting employment growth," Mr Eslake said.
"Employers in agriculture and tourism have from time to time expressed concerns along these lines."
He said it was also possible there were flaws in the statistics, either for employment or for other economic growth indicators, or for both.
"It wouldn't be the first time," he said.