When statistics released in late 2016 showed more than 90,000 West Australians were unemployed, Mark McGowan and his WA Labor colleagues were outraged.

"This is a jobs crisis of monumental proportions that is of the Barnett Liberal Government's making," a media release from the then Labor opposition stated. "The legacy of Colin Barnett and this Liberal Government will be record unemployment."

But when data released earlier this month revealed a record number of West Australians looking for work, and the highest unemployment rate in more than 15 years, the reaction from Labor —now in government — took a decidedly different tone.

"What this shows is there is a sense of optimism returning, people see that we are out there creating jobs," Tourism Minister Paul Papalia said.

The McGowan Government claimed the surge in the number of people looking for work was a sign that those who had previously given up on a job had regained belief.

But the raw numbers pointed to plenty of people doing it tough, with 108,000 West Australians unemployed and the 6.9 per cent seasonally adjusted unemployment rate marking the worst result since 2002.

Unemployment surge not part of the plan

For a political party that campaigned heavily around its "plan for jobs", promising to get West Australians back into work and saying its policies would create 50,000 positions, the figures undoubtedly caused some concerns.

Unemployment was such a regular theme of the party's campaign efforts that anyone who had a dollar for every time Mark McGowan said "only WA Labor has a plan for jobs" in the lead up to last year's election would have racked up enough money to avoid working altogether.

Mr McGowan regularly donned hard hats and high-visibility clothing, talking up how a range of his policies would create masses of jobs, and even made his campaign launch speech in front of a massive screen that read: "WA Jobs First".

About 108,000 West Australians are unemployed. ( ABC TV )

Major infrastructure commitments, laws to boost the chances of Government contracts going to local firms and tighter restrictions regarding the hiring of foreign workers would lead a surge in the number of West Australians in the workforce, Mr McGowan argued.

In basic terms, Labor staked much of its political fortunes on fixing WA's unemployment problems.

A higher unemployment rate a year later was clearly not part of the plan and the Government will desperately be hoping those numbers head back in the right direction soon.

The Government argues it was always going to take time to turn around a lagging state economy, having long claimed that it "inherited a mess".

But, when jobs figures released late last year provided better news — a reduced unemployment rate — the Government was happy to lap up the credit.

"The figures … demonstrate this Government is getting on with the job of creating jobs," Mr McGowan said in November.

"Confidence has returned to the Western Australian economy under this Labor Government."

You can't say 'oops, it's the other mob's fault'

According to Opposition Leader Mike Nahan, the Government has shown hypocrisy in its response to those figures.

Mike Nahan has accused the McGowan Government of hypocrisy. ( ABC News: Eliza Laschon )

"They were crowing three months ago that they had solved the unemployment [issue] in WA … you cannot now turn around and say 'oops, it's the other mob's fault'," he said.

"It is volatile, I accept that, but the trend is in the wrong direction."

It is important to note that it has not all been bad news on the jobs front in the past 12 months.

The average unemployment rate over Labor's first year in office was 5.9 per cent, slightly lower than the 6.2 per cent seen in the 12 months prior.

In fact, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows there are about 25,000 more West Australians in the workforce than there were a year ago.

But, off the latest statistics, the unemployment rate has not been this high since a time when Simon Crean was the federal Opposition Leader, Jason Akermanis was the reigning Brownlow Medallist and his Brisbane Lions had just claimed the first AFL premiership of their three-in-a-row streak.

Given Labor went to the election promising to fix the state's "job crisis", those within the Government's ranks will be in no doubt that they need those numbers to turn around soon.