UNEMPLOYMENT TICKS UP AS UNDEREMPLOYMENT REMAINS PERSISTANT CONCERN

The latest labour force figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show an increase to the unemployment rate, and highlight the persistent challenges of underemployment and low wages growth under Turnbull and his Liberals.

 

With the unemployment rate increasing to 5.5 per cent, there are now 730,600 unemployed Australians, with 37,800 more people lining the unemployment queue than when the Abbott-Turnbull Government was first elected.

 

Labor notes that the unemployment rate at 5.5 per cent is comparable to that at the peak of the Global Financial Crisis.

 

Australia’s persistent underemployment problem was reflected in the increase in part time jobs exceeding the increase in full time jobs in December 2017.

 

There are almost 1.1 million underemployed Australians looking for more work, but unable to find it. When coupled with the number of unemployed, it means there are more than 1.8 million Australians who are under-utilised in the labour force.

 

Of particular interest is that total aggregate hours worked decreased by 4.2 million hours, reflecting the growth in part time employment and the issue of underemployment.

 

With insecure work, record low wages growth, and skyrocketing cost of living pressures, Australians are feeling the pinch and Turnbull and his Liberals have failed to acknowledge these challenges, let alone come up with any policy initiatives to deal with them.

 

No plan to help workers - instead Turnbull and every member of his government support reducing workers’ take home pay by cutting their penalty rates.

 

The Government should be getting on with the job of addressing the challenges and persistent problems in the labour market, rather than obsessing over how to give massive tax breaks to Turnbull’s friends at the top end of town.

 

If Malcolm Turnbull got his way, he would give a tax cut to millionaires, a tax cut to big business and a tax increase for workers – that’s not a plan to help working Australians, it’s a plan to hurt them.