Australia’s unemployment rate rises but taxpayer-funded jobs increase

The great divide between the public and private sector continues and the big winners are those on taxpayer-funded salaries.

Exclusive: The creation of taxpayer-funded jobs continues to increase while hundreds of thousands of private sector workers are left jobless, new figures reveal.

Latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data analysed by think tank the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) showed between March and November about 25,800 public sector jobs were created.

At the same time, more than 300,000 private sector jobs were lost.

And younger workers are among the hardest hit – employment for workers aged between 15 and 34 fell by 158,000 while employment for those aged 35 and over rose by 20,000.

The IPA’s research report, Not in this together: An analysis of the economic and social impact of COVID-19 lockdowns, showed low-income earners, young Australians and those who are in the private sector were the hardest hit.

People queue at Centrelink at Marrickville. Picture: John Feder/The Australian.

The IPA’s research fellow Kurt Wallace said the disproportionate job losses were largely a result of lockdown measures imposed on workers.

“The lockdowns accelerated the deep divide we have in our country between those on higher incomes and in the public sector versus though on lower incomes and working in the private sector, particularly younger Australians,” he said.

Latest figures show Australia’s gross domestic product rose by 3.1 per cent over the December quarter – a strong sign the economy is improving from the COVID-19 pandemic.

But Small Business Australia’s executive director Bill Lang said the job loss figures showed “we’re not all in it together”.

“If you are a public servant or an employee or a large corporation in many cases the pandemic has been great for you financially, you can work from home and don’t have to deal with traffic and fear of losing your job,” he said.

The deserted streets of Melbourne during COVID lockdowns. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Luis Ascui

“It’s been the private sector and particularly small and medium-sized businesses are the ones that have suffered the biggest financial impacts.”

Mr Lang said when the Federal Government’s JobKeeper program ends later this month many on these support measures “will be unemployed in four weeks’ time”.

“There will be no work for them to do and for those business owners who are going to fight to survive they will provide as much of the labour as they can do,” he said.

The report also showed in the June and September quarters private sector wages fell by $8.3 billion while public sector wages rose by $2.75 billion.

And there was an overall fall of 515,400 jobs for workers earning less than $700 a week, while an increase of 53,500 jobs for those earning between $700 and $1799.

There was also an increase of 194,500 jobs for those earning more than $1800 per week.

@sophieelsworth

Originally published as Australia’s unemployment rate rises but taxpayer-funded jobs increase