In his first year as prime minister, Anthony Albanese has increased the number of Australians in the paid workforce by 3.44% to an all-time high of 14 million. That gives Albo the best record of any prime minister since 1978, when the current data series began.
That’s according to the monthly jobs figures released last Thursday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). This data batch contains several hidden items worth celebrating, with credit shared, of course, by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and workforce ministers Tony Burke and Brendan O’Connor.
The jobless rate improved from 3.68% to 3.55% in May. That’s down from 3.91% when the Labor Government took charge. Jobs added so far this year come to 220,000. The total over the full twelve months since the May 2022 election is an impressive 465,500.
The percentage of all workers with full-time jobs is now increasing. Jobs relative to population is also steadily rising.
Hours worked per person per month hit a new all-time high in April of 91.33.
Long term unemployed dramatically cut
The number of Australians jobless for more than a year is now below 90 thousand for the first time since 2009. At 87,700 this is a 35% reduction in less than a year. The current level is half the long-term jobless numbers through most of the previous conservative Coalition Government’s years.
The number of weeks the jobless now spend looking for a job has also fallen to an historic low, at just 33.7 weeks. That’s down from 52.4 in May last year when Labor won office.
Jobs created and jobs lost
As Australia and the world emerge from the global Covid downturn significant changes in the jobs market are now evident.
Construction employed 1.32 million workers in February, an all-time high. That’s up 146,000 on a year ago, and 315,000 more than ten years ago.
The retail sector has substantially recovered from the slump throughout the Coalition period. It provided 1.36 million jobs in February, another all-time high. The hospitality sector is also recovering nicely, with just under a million employees now, an all-time high.
Health care has seen a dramatic increase in personnel, with more than 2.1 million workers now engaged. That’s 100,000 more than a year ago, 300,000 more than two years ago and a million more than 15 years ago.
Many manufacturing jobs have gone forever. For decades, this sector employed well over a million Australians. In 2003, this fell below seven figures for the first time since records have been kept and has slipped steadily since. A low point of 860,000 was reached in 2015 during the dismal Abbott/Hockey period, but the recovery since then has been marginal. The latest number is 871,000.
Sectors showing significant job losses include farming and forestry, and information media and telecommunications.
The public service has barely shifted over the last four years, although the last 12 months has seen a slight contraction.
Climbing the global rankings
Australia’s international standing on jobs is steadily rising, consistent with most other indicators improving in global rankings, as we saw here last week. Australia now ranks 12th among the 38 OECD member countries on jobless rates, up from 15th a year ago, having overtaken Israel, Hungary and the United Kingdom.
We must wait a while, of course, before declaring Albo Australia’s best job-creating PM. It has only been one year, and we are arguably still in the recovery phase from the Covid recession. But so far, he is on track.
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This is an abbreviated version of an article published today in Independent Australia. The original article is available here in full for free:
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/albos-team-sets-employment-records-despite-job-categories-disappearing,17629
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