Is the unemployment rate dropping because jobs are increasing?
For the unemployment rate to drop for healthy sustainable reasons, employment must increase faster than the working-age population. This way, growth in employment accounts for the increase in the working-age population and migrant workers coming to Australia. So to maintain job growth, we are forced to hire from the unemployed rather than bringing in workers from overseas alone.
The current drop in unemployment is not due to an increase in the number of jobs on offer but a spike in job vacancies caused by a drop in migrant workers. Our current labour force isn’t big enough to fulfil our labour requirements. Job vacancies increased by 18.5% in the last quarter of 2021
We can see from the ABS data below that after the initial shock of COVID in 2020, job vacancies skyrocketed and in turn, the unemployment rate plummeted as migrant workers disappeared.
Similar posts you may like
- Budget reliance on tax paid by wealthy Australians
Australia’s budget is heavily reliant on the 1% of Australians who earn more than $350,000 per year. That is 82000 men with an average Read more
- 300 BC – Salt Tax
In ancient times, salt was essential to preserve food and maintain people’s health. Humans require salt in their Read more
- The First Self Managed Super Fund was Established in 1915
A self-managed super fund (SMSF) is an Australian trust structure that is used by members to personally manage their retirement savings. SMSFs are established Read more
- Electric vehicle home charging expenses
The ATO has introduced a 4.20 cents per km rate for home-charging electric vehicles (EV). The rate is multiplied by the number of kilometres Read more
"You’d be stupid not to try to cut your tax bill and those that don’t are stupid in business"
- Bono: U2