The state’s unemployment rate fell from 5.1 per cent in February to 4.8 per cent in March, which treasurer Mike Baird said was largely due to the NSW Liberals and Nationals coming into government, creating 40,000 jobs in the process.

Orana Education and Training Co-operative Ltd (OEC) employment services manager Mark Noonan said he had not seen any drop-off in Dubbo employment in the last 12 months.

“The job market is reasonably healthy and Dubbo has a pretty good unemployment rate,” he said.

He said there was a great demand for employees in Dubbo, with the key to success being confidence.

“We hear all this news from overseas about different economies, but Australia’s is tough and strong and Dubbo is appealing to a lot of people... there is a lot of confidence in the area and for people in the country.”

Member for Dubbo Troy Grant said the latest figures were encouraging.

“As with all forecasts, the figures are subject to change if an unexpected event appears on the economic horizon,” he said.

Mr Grant said that improved unemployment figures aside, the NSW government would continue to explore measures that would stimulate the small business sector, recognised as the “engine room” of the economy.

Mr Baird said it was pleasing to see the total employment rate rose to 19,100 in NSW in the last month, putting the state second to the WA in terms of job growth.

“This is particuarly welcome news following a decade where NSW had the lowest employment growth rate of all states under state Labor,” he said.

He said significant economic uncertainty still remained, and expected this would put further pressure on jobs over the coming year.

“Despite those challenges, this Government will continue to work hard to restore confidence and support the creation of jobs in this state through our infrastructure program and Jobs Action Plan, which is providing payroll tax rebates for 100,000 new jobs for our state,” he said.