Coronavirus job losses hit 976,000, ABS reports

Another 195,000 jobs were lost over the week to April 18, suggesting a possible jobless rate of more than 12 per cent.

People queue at a Centrelink office in Hornsby, in Sydney’s north, last week. Picture: Madelaine Wong

Nearly a million jobs have been lost over the month to April 18, figures from the ABS show, with economists warning that the COVID-19 crisis could now push the unemployment rate as high as 12 per cent.

Australian Taxation Office payroll figures showed another 195,000 jobs were lost over the two weeks to April 18, bringing total losses since March 14 to 976,000, according to an Australian Bureau of Statistics report.

In percentage terms, the decline in paid jobs since mid-March — when Australia recorded its 100th coronavirus case — is now 7.5 per cent.

The ABS report suggested unemployment had surged to almost 1.7 million people, implying an unemployment rate above 12 per cent, IFM Investors chief economist Alex Joiner said.

Young workers continued to lose jobs in droves: close to a fifth of jobs held by people aged under 20 have now vanished, against 10 per cent two weeks ­earlier.

Total wages dropped by 1 per cent over the week to April 18, bringing the hit to pay packets from the pandemic to 8.2 per cent, the figures showed.

The ABS report, the second in a new series, showed one in three jobs in the accommodation and food service industry have disappeared over the month as social distancing measures forced the closure of many businesses, versus one in four two weeks earlier.

Wages in that sector have now collapsed by 30 per cent.

The next hardest hit were arts and recreation services jobs, which have now dropped 27 per cent since March 14, while the total wage bill has declined by 10 per cent.

Women have been harder hit, suffering an 8.1 per cent drop in the number of jobs over the month to April 18, against a 6.2 per cent fall for men.

The ABS release measures the number of jobs, and around a million workers hold multiple roles implying the actual number of unemployed will be a little lower than suggested by the payrolls statistics.

But the data mirrored government reports that more than 1.5 million people are now on unemployment benefits, with 900,000 million claims processed in the past six weeks.

The next update on the jobs market will be on May 14, when the ABS releases the official ­labour force figures for April.

CBA senior economist Kristina Clifton said she was expecting a “huge” fall in the number of jobs in the month, and the official unemployment rate to lift to 8 per cent alongside a drop in the participation rate.

Economists were somewhat encouraged by evidence that jobs fell more slowly than during the week ending April 4, which immediately followed the announcement on March 30 of strict social distancing measures.