New figures show WA has the second-highest unemployment rate in the country, as the Government unveils a new $1 billion training and skills package.

The country lost almost 70,000 jobs in June, pushing the total number of Australians employed beyond 992,000.

There have never been as many Australians unemployed since 1978.

South Australia has the highest unemployment in the country, with a rate of 8.8%, followed closely by WA at 8.7%.

Scott Morrison told Australians to “lift our heads” and to “keep looking forward”.

“Australia, while the blow has been harsh, compared to what’s been seen in most other developed economies around the world, we’ve been able to mitigate a lot of the blow,” he said.

The worst is yet to come

Mr Morrison did not shy away from the fact the Victorian outbreak was likely to deal another damaging blow to the national economy and employment rate.

“The unemployment figures released in the last hour have been for June. In July, I expect we will see impact from Victoria,” he said.

“The extent of the outbreak in Victoria is beyond what we would have hoped would have occurred.”

Victoria recorded 317 just today, with the second wave spreading to NSW.

Women and youth back in work

Mr Morrison said of those that had jumped back into work, 60% were women and 50% were youth.

“Underemployment has fallen and we’ve seen an improvement in hours,” he said.

But the majority of those found themselves part-time, not full-time work.

“That’s to be expected in the economic situation that we’ve seen emerge over these many months,” Morrison said.

“But what I’m encouraged by about that is the flexibility we’ve seen in the labour force has meant that it’s been able to keep people in jobs, maybe not as many hours as they once had but they are still in jobs.”

JobTrainer package unveiled to offer free training opportunities

In preparation for the spike in unemployment, the Government timed the release of its newest program today – JobTrainer (another feather in its hat to join JobKeeper and JobSeeker)

A Federal Government $1 billion stimulus package is expected to help 500,000 school leavers and people looking to retrain.

The package will be shared between the Federal and State Governments, with each contributing $500 million.

The money will deliver more than 340,000 training places for low to no cost in areas of greatest need to the economy, including healthcare, transport and retail.

The Federal Government will also extend its wage subsidy scheme with $1.5 billion in finding.

Further Perth News coverage on SoPerth.com.au.

Feature image: AAP Image/Lukas Coch