SYDNEY, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- Low job numbers and slow population growth continue to plague the growth of Tasmania's economy, a report has found.
The Deloitte Access Economic report, released on Monday, said the state had stable growth in most areas, particularly retail, domestic visitor numbers and house prices in Hobart.
Chris Richardson, an economist with Deloitte, said the steady growth was largely due to the state not being impacted by the "mining bust" and strong spending in recent years.
"This is a state that since the middle of 2013 has been spending at the same rate as the rest of Australia," Richardson told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Monday.
"That is a relatively good outcome given that Tasmania has rather weaker population growth."
The report noted that while the state's population growth was at its strongest in five years, it was still weak compared to the rest of Australia.
Richardson also pointed out that employment remained a problem, with the state having fewer full-time jobs than six years ago.
"Over the past five years or so there's been no net gain in jobs in Tasmania," he said.
"If you divide the overall job numbers into full-timers and part-timers there are now fewer full-timers than there were back in 2011."
Peter Gutwein, Tasmania's Treasurer, said while the report was encouraging, more work was needed.
"That is why job creation and economic growth remains our number one priority, and why we have implemented a Northern Economic Stimulus package, so that we can continue to grow the economy and create jobs," he said.
