Queensland jobless rate jumps in February

Queensland's unemployment rate has jumped to 6.7 per cent seasonally adjusted in February, with more than 11,000 people losing their jobs.

The Queensland government insists the state's unemployment rate will turn around, after it surged to a two-year high in February.

The state's seasonally adjusted jobless rate rose from 6.3 per cent in January to 6.7 per cent last month, its highest level since April 2015 and the highest in the country.

Queensland leap-frogged South Australia (6.6 per cent), while NSW recorded a seasonally adjusted 5.2 per cent and Victoria 6.1, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday.

Treasurer Curtis Pitt has consistently pointed to the trend figures as being a more reliable indicator of the actual unemployment rate, however they also increased from 6.3 per cent in January to 6.4 per cent last month.

Mr Pitt said despite the rises, he believed the overall economic trend was positive, with four consecutive quarters of positive growth.

"Why that's important is we will see over the coming months employment growth as a result of that," he said on Thursday.

"There is always a lag but we're very confident the jobs programs we have in place are meeting the requirements of the businesses that are asking us for support."

The treasurer pointed to figures showing there had been 33,000 net jobs created since Labor was elected to government in January 2015.

However Shadow Treasurer Scott Emerson said the government had delivered a "terrible trifecta" for Queenslanders.

"What we have now seen is the worst unemployment rate in Australia, the worst number of job losses over the last year and the worst number of job losses over the last month," he said on Thursday.

"(Premier) Annastacia Palaszczuk talks about jobs, jobs, jobs but all she has delivered is jobs misery."

Independent economist Saul Eslake said the figures were part of the overall effect of the end of the mining boom.

He said Queensland had been cushioned by its diversified economy, including a strong tourism sector, but warned underlying data suggested a large cohort of people were out of work, which needed to be addressed.

"Using the trend data, the proportion of Queensland's population who had a job in February was 60 per cent . That's the lowest rate it has been since July 2002," Mr Eslake told AAP.

The seasonally adjusted figure showed 11,500 Queenslanders lost their jobs last month, while the participation rate - the number of people employed or actively looking for work - fell slightly to 64.1 per cent.

Nationally the unemployment rate was 5.9 per cent in February seasonally adjusted, up from 5.7 per cent in January.