The Turnbull government has been spruiking the nation’s strong employment growth over the past year to support its economic credentials, but voters are yet to be convinced.

The first Sky News/ReachTel poll of the year, released on Sunday, shows the government is still lagging behind Labor after a very modest improvement over summer.

The Coalition’s primary vote has risen just one point to 34% while the opposition has held steady at 36%.

The two-party-preferred vote has narrowed slightly to 52% for Labor and 48% for the government.

The poll comes less than two weeks after the Bureau of Statistics released figures showing Australia in 2017 experienced the largest absolute increase in jobs in decades – 403,100 jobs were created last year, in seasonally adjusted terms.

The majority of the new jobs were full-time positions (303,400 positions, worth 75% of all new jobs), and the economy has now recorded 15 consecutive monthly gains in employment, matching the record set in June 1995 when the country was recovering from the early 1990s recession.

Despite the unambiguously positive news, the Sky News/ReachTel poll shows only a slight improvement for the government.

The poll also comes less than a week after the trade minister, Steve Ciobo, announced that the 11-country Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement had been resuscitated.

Malcolm Turnbull, treasurer Scott Morrison and Ciobo spent much of last week promoting the news, declaring it a multibillion dollar win for Australian workers, businesses, farmers and consumers, although economists have questioned how large the benefits will actually be.

According to the Sky News/ReachTel poll, Turnbull remains preferred prime minister, rising two points to 54% compared with the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, who declined two points to 46%.

The government’s big push this year will be to get the remainder of its business tax cuts through the parliament, but the poll found only 32% of voters back such action compared with 44% who oppose them.

Almost a quarter of those surveyed are undecided on whether large business should see their tax rate cut to 25% from 30%.

Australian Associated Press contributed to this report