South Australia's unemployment rate ticked up in January, despite the creation of 5,300 jobs, because of a rise in the number of people actively looking for work.

In the final set of official Australian Bureau of Statistics jobs figures to be released before the March 17 election, the unemployment rate increased from 5.9 to 6 per cent in both seasonally adjusted and trend terms.

The fact that unemployment has risen in tandem with the creation of new jobs reflects an increase in the participation rate, which means more people were actively seeking work.

The latest figures were released just before Premier Jay Weatherill announced the opening of a new crane manufacturing centre at the former Holden site in Elizabeth.

Victorian company Australian Crane and Machinery will start making cranes and other large equipment from next year.

Mr Weatherill said the move would create 190 jobs, and said the latest employment figures were good news for South Australia.

"When you think about the challenges we have faced, with that factory over the road [Holden] closing, with over 1,000 jobs disappearing in recent times, only four months ago, this is a good result," he said.

"But it's not good enough and that's why jobs are my number one priority. That's why throughout the whole of this period that we have been working since the closure of Holden was announced four years ago we have placed jobs as our number one priority."

Jay Weatherill announces Australian Crane and Machinery will open for business at the old Holden site. ( ABC News: Sarah Hancock )

But Liberal leader Steven Marshall accused Labor of presiding over a decline in full-time work.

"Since 2010, when I joined the Parliament, South Australia now has fewer people with full-time jobs in the state than we had back in 2010," he said.

"Labor has not been good for jobs and consequently more and more of our young kids are leaving South Australia when they finish school or finish university because they can't find a job."

There have been 18,900 additional jobs added to the SA economy since Jay Weatherill became Premier in October 2011.

But only 2,200 of the additional positions are full-time.

Unemployment rate December 2017 Unemployment rate January 2018 SA 5.9pc 6.0pc Victoria 6.1pc 5.6pc Queensland 6.0pc 6.1pc NSW 4.8pc 5.1pc WA 5.7pc 5.7pc Tasmania 6.1pc 5.3pc NT 4.7pc 4.6pc ACT 3.9pc 4.0pc Australia 5.6 5.5

Source: ABS (Note: All figures are seasonally adjusted except NT & ACT which are trend)