LABOUR FORCE FIGURES

Labor welcomes the figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics but notes this month’s data does not reveal the true picture of the labour market.

 

Labor notes that the unemployment rate at 5.6 per cent is comparable to that at the peak of the Global Financial Crisis with 728,100 unemployed Australians.

 

It is important to note there are still serious underlying problems in the labour market that need to be addressed and which are not being addressed by the Turnbull Government.

 

Underemployment remains at record highs with more than 1.1 million Australians wanting more work but not being able to find it – there are 1.8 million of our fellow Australians who are either unemployed or underemployed.

 

Wages growth is a record lows and the Government has no plan to address people’s stagnating wages. In fact, it has a plan to further cut people’s real income by supporting the decision to cut penalty rates.

 

Youth unemployment jumped from 12.7 per cent to 13.1 per cent, more than double the national unemployment rate.

 

Not only are there 278,400 young unemployed people, but the Government has added insult to injury with its Youth Jobs PaTH Program, which offers tax subsidies to employers to hire young people on below award wages, and does not require the job to be additional.  

 

Work in this country is becoming more insecure, however you never hear the Government talking about this.

 

While this Government talks statistics, Labor talks to real workers in the labour market, who are telling us they are feeling increasingly casualised and precarious at work.

 

The Government shouldn’t be taking too much credit for these figures, it remains clear it has no jobs plan and is merely benefitting from an uptick in business and consumer confidence.

 

The Government should be getting on with addressing these sorts of issues rather than providing a tax cut to millionaires.