UNDEREMPLOYMENT HIGH, WAGES GROWTH LOW

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) labour force figures, released today, show that structural issues of underemployment remain in the labour market, which when combined with stagnant wages, are hurting Australian families.

 

While Labor welcomes the unemployment rate remaining at 5.4 per cent, we note that there are still 714,000 unemployed Australians, with nearly 20,000 more people lining the unemployment queue than when the Abbott-Turnbull Government was elected.

 

The number of underemployed Australians – that is people wanting more work but not being able to find it - is at 1.123 million. 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.   

 

While Malcolm Turnbull may try to boast about jobs figures, the truth is the facts are more complicated. Since June 2017, the growth in part time work has outstripped the growth in full time work, and this is at a time when millions of Australians are wanting more work but being unable to find it.

 

When it comes to secure, decent jobs, the Turnbull Government remains silent.

 

Labor this week announced  our ‘same job, same pay’ policy to ensure that labour hire workers are paid and treated fairly, and that they aren’t used to undermine the pay and conditions of direct employees.  

 

This is in addition to Labor’s pledge to restore and protect penalty rates, which under the Turnbull Government will be cut again next July and the July after that.

 

The Turnbull Government rejects Labor’s labour hire and penalty rates policies because, it is clear, they want wages to stay as low as possible.

Under Malcolm Turnbull and his Liberals, Australians are suffering with insecure work, stagnant wages and skyrocketing cost of living pressures.

Turnbull and his Liberals are too arrogant and out of touch to acknowledge these challenges, let alone come up with any policy initiatives to deal with them

Instead, they support cuts to wages through slashing penalty rates, and advocate for a $17 billion tax handout to the banks.