A drop in unemployment in South Australia is at odds with the ongoing criticism of the state government's controversial bank tax, acting state Employment Minister Susan Close says.
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released on Thursday put SA's jobless rate down 0.4 percentage points to 6.2 per cent in July.
SA no longer has the highest unemployment rate in the nation, with that title now falling to Tasmania,.
"We've seen the biggest drop in unemployment in all the states in the headline figure across the last month," she said.
"Despite efforts to talk down our state by the opposition, despite efforts to talk down investment opportunities by the banks, we've seen an increase in investment recently and we will maintain our focus on that."
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But South Australia is yet to deal with the upcoming closure of Holden's assembly operations and the state opposition says the jobs front remains dire.
"It's clear that a tired, old and arrogant government doesn't have a cogent plan to turn around this dire unemployment situation," opposition employment spokesman Corey Wingard said in a statement.
He also continued his party's criticism of the bank levy, warning it won't create any jobs or encourage investment.
"It remains a huge concern that this government has failed to articulate an economic strategy to counter the loss of thousands of jobs in the automotive sector," Mr Wingard said.
Ms Close said the government would not listen to the nonsense "scare tactics".
She said she'd prefer to tax the big banks the projected $400 million over the next four years to boost business and investment.
"That money is much better off being spent on jobs growth and employment in South Australia," she said.
