The unemployment rate in Australia, adjusted seasonally, has risen to 5.6% nationwide, a figure that was higher than expected by economists. This is despite employment growing by 22,600, shown by figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. However, this growth in employment has been slower than the growth in workforce, as employment grew over the past year by 332,100, the labour force growing to 341,900 leaving unemployment at the highest since early 2017.
New South Wales has the lowest rate sitting on 5% while Victoria and South Australia shows rates of 5.3% and 5.9% respectively. NSW also saw the biggest jump in employment with 9400 people in work. Victoria followed this with 2100 back in the workplace, while 1400 people found employment in Western Australia
In South Australia, the state’s economy continues to fluctuate in the aftermath of the Holden factory closure while more than 52,000 SA residents were without jobs and looking for work last month.
Some parties are not happy with the rate of change with the Australian Council of Trade Unions taking issue with the unemployment figures, condemning the government having little of no impact on the rate of unemployed and underemployed Aussies since they won government in 2013.
“Australians need more secure jobs, but under the Turnbull Government nearly two million people are either underemployed on unemployed,” ACTU Secretary Sally McManus said.
However, the Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull has hailed the work of the coalition government as “phenomenal” in creating over 1 million jobs in the space of five years, something Tony Abbot, as leader of the Liberal Party, had promised on election in 2013. The Prime Minister was hopeful that the extra taxes being paid from these jobs would allow the government to deliver essential services and restore balance with the budget.
The national jobless rate hasn’t been as high since July of 2017; however the unemployment rate has declined by 0.25 in the past year and is expected to follow this trend over the next year, according to Reserve Bank Governor Guy Debelle.
He also indicated that figures relating to current vacancies and hiring remained positive and this would create a spike in wages and a downward trend in unemployment. Wages currently sit at an annual growth of 2.1%, the lowest in decades and sitting just above inflation.