The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted the economy and jobs from every industry. This global pandemic has made previously easily trackable data more complex in these challenging times. Unemployment statistics have fallen according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Statistics show that it has dropped to 4.5% which might have been cause for celebration in the past, but now this meagre statistic doesn’t show the full picture.
The Covid-19 pandemic hit the Australian economy hard and a small decrease in unemployment doesn’t signify an economy boom. Australia survived the Covid-19 pandemic better than many countries but recovery will be slow.
The fact is that unemployment is hard to count when these days there are more people who are technically counted as employed yet have zero hours worked due lockdowns and closures.
Unemployment is counted as those who are actively looking for work and there are not many looking as there aren’t opportunities out there currently. “The fall in the unemployment rate reflects a large fall in participation during the recent lockdowns, rather than a strengthening in labour market conditions,” Bjorn Jarvis, head of labour statistics at the ABS, said.
Women are bearing the biggest drop in employment due to the pandemic, with 137,400 out of work within NSW compared to the 81,700 of men losing jobs. Lockdowns have a severe impact on the job market and the real unemployment number is closer to 9%. This figure is including those who lost their jobs, and those who are technically employed but not working at all. This is a much more realistic look at Australia’s employment situation.
Until the economy starts seeing lockdown ends with vaccination rates hitting their targets, the unemployment statistic is a bare-bones indication of the state of the labour market.
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