Australian unemployment rate steady at 4 per cent

Australia’s unemployment rate has remained steady at 4.0 per cent, despite expectation it could drop again, breaking a nearly 50-year record.

Australia’s unemployment rate has remained steady at 4.0 per cent, though a drop in women’s unemployment levels has broken a nearly 50-year record.

Many economists, and the Prime Minister himself had predicted a drop in the number, which would have seen total unemployment at its lowest since 1974.

And while the rate did not drop, the low number will prove a boost for Scott Morrison in the first week of the election campaign.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese’s campaign stumbled this week when he struggled to remember the national unemployment rate, and a refresh of the figures is likely to refocus attention on his gaffe.

Australia’s current unemployment rate, steady from last month, is the lowest rate since August 2008.

Speaking in Tasmania ahead of the release of the figures, the Prime Minister said the election was a clear choice.

“You asked me about priorities and I will talk about what my priorities are: Jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs and jobs,’’ he said.

”This election is a choice between a government who understands the economy, a government that has the economic plan that has ensured that through this pandemic, we are emerging as one of the strongest advanced economies in the world.”

Scott Morrison had suggested the rate would drop below four per cent, as had market economists. Photo by Martin Ollman/Getty Images

Had the rate dropped, it would have been the lowest seen since 1974. Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images

Mr Morrison said the Labor leader’s stumble over the unemployment figures was a reminder of that choice.

“If you don’t have an economic plan and if you don’t know how to manage money, and

if you don’t even know what is going on in the economy – and I am not talking about the fact that he couldn’t remember a number, I am talking about the fact that he didn’t even know what the number was.

“I am talking about that he didn’t know what was going on in the economy in one of the most fundamental issues.”

On Monday, the Labor leader stumbled when asked to name that figure getting it wrong by a big margin.

“The national unemployment rate at the moment is … I think it’s 5.4,” Mr Albanese said.

“Sorry. I’m not sure what it is.”

While the steady rate isn’t necessarily a victory for Scott Morrison, it could give him a boost as the refreshed figure turns attention back to a moment where Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese incorrectly guessed the rate earlier this week. Picture: Sky News

At a press conference today, Mr Albanese was asked about his shadow treasurer saying in 2020 the biggest test of this government’s management of the recession and its aftermath will be what happens to jobs.

He was then asked whether or not he conceded the government had passed the test.

“I certainly hope it has a ‘3’ in front of it later today. I want to see the unemployment rate as low as possible,’’ Mr Albanese said.

“I also look at the nature of how people are doing it. The truth is that the figures have shown, for example we had a debate about casualisation over the last couple of days.

“There are half a million people, half a million people working three jobs or more. Half a million, think about that. Three jobs or more. That is an increase of 50 per cent since this government came to office.”

The Australian definition of unemployed changed in 1996, with anyone working more than an hour a week not counted.

Mr Albanese is correct to assert that the unemployment rate doesn’t measure the total number of Aussies who don’t have jobs but rather only those who are ready and willing.

Since 1966, it has classified “unemployed” people by using the following criteria:

– They must not work more than one hour in the reference week

– They must be actively looking for work

– They must be available to start work in the reference week

Mr Albanese was also grilled on whether foreign nurses might be part of the mix for your aged care pledge.

His comments were at odds with his own opposition aged care spokeswoman Claire O’Neill insists who insisted on the ABC’s Q+A recently that attracting Australian nurses to rejoin the aged care sector after Covid was the answer.

“Foreign nurses – when I was in RPA last year, it was Irish nurses just about everyone was an Irish nurse. They are a part of our migration system,’’ Mr Albanese said.

“The nurses who were there yesterday are ecstatic about the policy.”