Qld jobless rate improves as national employment plummets

Queensland has bucked the trend, becoming the only state to reduce its jobless rate in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

QUEENSLAND has bucked the national trend as the only state to record an improved unemployment rate between May and June.

In the Sunshine State, the unemployment rate dropped by 0.1 percentage point to 7.7 per cent – the third highest in the country, according to labour figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Skills and apprentices target of $2bn government package

$400m deal announced: Gold Coast gain major big-budget production companies interest

Mount Isa powerline proposal could generate thousands of jobs

Queensland was one of the states that saw the biggest jobs gains, with about 53,000 people moving into jobs in the month of June, seasonally adjusted.

It compared favourably to the 29,500 jobs added in Victoria, but was not as many as the 81,000 added in NSW – a state with a much higher population.

Underemployment in Queensland remained relatively controlled, at 11.2 per cent, below the rate in NSW – 11.3 per cent – and Victoria – 12.8 per cent.

It comes as Australia recorded the highest unemployment rate for 22 years, raising fears the “COVID-19 economic recession” will dampen prospects of an early recovery.

released Thursday showed Australia’s June unemployment rate rose to 7.4 per cent, a 0.3 percentage rise on the previous month.

It was the highest monthly unemployment rate since November 1998 and prompted Prime Minister Scott Morrison to label the fiscal pain caused by the pandemic as Australia’s “COVID-19 economic recession”.

The number of jobless rose by 69,300 people to a total of 992,300.

“The easing of COVID-19 restrictions in June saw an extra 280,000 people in the labour force, with more people in employment, and more actively looking and available for work,” ABS head of statistics Bjorn Jarvis said.

Nationally, total employment improved over the month compared to May, with 210,800 Australians finding some form of employment, which was spurred by large increases in part-time employment. Full-time employment fell by 38,100 jobs in the same period.

Mr Morrison said a part-time job was better than not having any job.

“The majority of jobs obviously are part-time employment, not full-time employment,” he said. “That’s to be expected in the economic situation that we’ve seen emerge over these many months.

Total hours worked rose 4 per cent during the month but remained 6.8 percentage points below pre-COVID-19 levels in March.

Women increased their working hours more than men during June, however both genders remained well below March levels.

Nationally, the underemployment rate decreased by 1.4 percentage points to 11.7 per cent, but was still 2.9 points below the pre-pandemic levels.

The under-utilisation rate, which is the combination of unemployment and underemployment rates, fell 1 percentage point to 19.1 per cent.

Mr Morrison noted the economy was “fighting back”, but expected the recovery to be impacted from the additional Victorian lockdown.

“In July, I expect we will see impact from Victoria but what it has demonstrated in June is that Australia has opened up again,” he said.

“But what I’m encouraged by is that the flexibility we’ve seen in the labour force has meant it’s been able to keep people in jobs – maybe not as many hours as they once had – but they are still in jobs …”