LIVERPOOL and Fairfield officially have the highest rate of unemployment in Australia.

Latest figures show more residents are looking for work than this time last year.

Figures for the last quarter show 14,000 people were unemployed in the region, an increase of 5 per cent from December 2007.

In total, Fairfield-Liverpool had an unemployment rate of almost 8 per cent - the highest in the country. It smashed the national average of 4.8 per cent.

The statistics were released earlier this month by the Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Department.

Shadow treasurer Mike Baird blamed the hike in the number of jobseekers on the lack of action by the State Government in addressing the global financial crisis.

He said parliament should be recalled immediately to address the dire situation which he described as “heartbreaking”.

In just one month the state’s unemployment figures had jumped from 5.2 per cent to 5.4 per cent, he said.

“Most importantly it means 10,000 people in this state over the last month have lost their jobs,” Mr Baird said.

“NSW has become the state of inertia, with a premier who believes he has no role to play in protecting jobs.”

He said Premier Nathan Rees’ mini-budget was crippling the economy and called on the government to reduce payroll tax by 15 per cent as proposed by the Opposition.

“This would benefit businesses which employ around 2 million people across the state,” Mr Baird said.

“The measure would keep almost $1 billion in the NSW economy, the equivalent of almost 16,500 jobs.”

He said the government needed to act to protect jobs, stimulate the economy and help businesses.

Last week Mr Rees announced he would chair a high level jobs summit with senior industry leaders on Friday and Saturday, February 27 and 28.

“We will need to do more than business as usual to protect jobs in NSW,” he said.

“Business leaders have experience and insight that I want to tap into.”

Fairfield Advance Online, 18 Feb 2009