Nearly 130,000 jobs were lost in Queensland in April, pushing up the unemployment rate
Nearly 130,000 Queenslanders and 600,000 Australians lost their job last month as the peak of the coronavirus shutdown hit. It pushed the unemployment rate up to 6.2 per cent nationally.
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NEARLY 130,000 jobs were lost in Queensland in April pushing the state’s unemployment to its highest rate since 2014, according to the latest jobs figures.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics figures also showed 104,700 Queenslanders left the workforce in April, which saved the unemployment rate spiking any higher.
Unemployment rose from 5.7 per cent to 6.8 per cent, according to the ABS.
In April, 178,300 Queenslanders were unemployed up from 153,500 in March while 2.6 million people still had a job.
Nationwide, three million Australians lost their job or had their hours slashed in during the same month, according to the jobs figures.
The figures, released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics today, showed 594,300 jobs around the country were shed between March and April, seasonally adjusted.
“The large drop in employment did not translate into a similar sized rise in the number of unemployed people because around 489,800 people left the labour force”, said ABS head of labour statistics Bjorn Jarvis.
More than 104,000 people joined the dole queue pushing unemployment to 6.2 per cent, up from 5.2 per cent.
The participation rate plummeted by an unprecedented 2.4 points to 63.5 per cent.
“This means there was a high number of people without a job who didn’t or couldn’t actively look for work or weren’t available for work”, Mr Jarvis said.
Total working hours fell 9.2 per cent between March and April.
The ABS said 900,000 people employed in March did not have a job in April while a further 1.8 million worked either fewer than their usual hours or no hours at all.
For those working fewer hours, 750,000 did no work at all while about one million did some work but fewer hours than usual.
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