Jobless surge to 5.2pc despite staffing squeeze

The latest labour force figures came ahead of the end of Delta lockdowns and economists remained confident of an ‘imminent’ jobs rebound.

Byron Bay butcher Graeme Mead of Trevor Mead Quality Meats says he is unable to find qualified staff. Picture: Natalie Grono

The unemployment rate jumped to 5.2 per cent in October from 4.6 per cent in the month before, after a further 46,000 Australians lost their jobs in the final month before the end of the Delta lockdowns.

Key to the substantial lift in the unemployment rate were further hefty job losses in Victoria, while a wave of returnees to the job market in NSW outweighed the strong jobs growth in the state.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics labour force survey was conducted between September 26 and October 9, and so was able to ­capture only the initial easing of restrictions ahead of the end of lockdown measures in NSW on October 11.

This was also well ahead of ­Victoria’s “freedom day”, which came 11 days after NSW’s.

The ACT exited its lockdown on October 14.

Amid a flood of more timely, upbeat indicators, economists said the sharp increase in the unemployment rate was not a sign that the vaunted post-Delta recovery was in danger.

ANZ senior economist Catherine Birch said: “We’re not too worried about the weak month … a rebound is imminent.”

The labour figures come as Scott Morrison shifts his focus to the economy, jobs and national ­security in the lead-up to Christmas. Continuing his blitz of Melbourne seats ahead of the election, the Prime Minister will announce on Friday a further $33m for food and beverage companies.

“More than one million Australians are once again employed in manufacturing and we want businesses to be successful and create even more jobs,” Mr Morrison said on Thursday.

In the lead-up to the election, the government looks poised to ride the wave of a rapidly improving economy after what is expected to have been a deep contraction in the September quarter.

 

Data over recent weeks has showed a surge in payroll jobs over the first half of October, record high job vacancy rates, growing confidence among workers about their employment prospects, and an upbeat assessment of the post-Delta recovery from the Reserve Bank – all amid widespread reports of employers struggling to find skilled staff.

Council of Small Business of Australia chief executive Alexi Boyd told The Australian the worker shortage was “extreme” and being felt across all industries.

“Small businesses are telling us that they could easily employ a handful of staff immediately,” Ms Boyd said.

Anna Mead, who runs Trevor Mead Quality Meats in Byron Bay with her husband Graeme, told The Australian there was a “major crunch for staff” and that she had been advertising now for six months.

“We employ nine people at the moment and four of them are highly qualified trade butchers,” Ms Mead said. “Ideally, I would probably hire two general hands and two butchers.

“It is actually more difficult than we’ve encountered in previous periods because there is no movement of people.

“You would have people coming in from overseas who are qualified. But that isn’t that happening, so everybody is short on staff.”

The number of employed people in NSW lifted by 22,000 in October, the seasonally adjusted data showed. But the number of unemployment climbed by more – by 35,000 people – as tens of thousands rejoined the workforce.

The labour force survey showed a further 50,000 fall in employed Victorians, alongside a 29,000 lift in unemployment – leaving the state’s workforce smaller by about 11,000 people.

The result pushed the jobless measure back above the 5.1 per cent rate that immediately preceded the pandemic.

NSW’s unemployment rate surged 0.8 percentage points to 5.4 per cent, and Victoria’s jumped 0.9 percentage points to 5.6 per cent. Unemployment leapt 2.5 percentage points to 6.6 per cent in the ACT.

“We still expect a rapid post-lockdown rebound in employment and hours worked over the next few months,” Ms Birch said, although she warned “the official unemployment rate could be a bit bumpy over the coming months, depending on the relative pace of the recoveries in employment and participation”.

The national workforce ­participation rate climbed to 64.7 per cent from 64.5 per cent, amplifying the impact of the fall in employment on the headline jobless measure.

The latest figures extended the fall in employment through the Delta crisis to 334,000, at 12.8 million. That compares to just shy of 13 million employed Australians in March 2020.

The underemployment rate – measuring those who have jobs but can’t get the hours they want – lifted to a 12-month high of 9.5 per cent in October, from 9.2 per cent.

Total monthly hours worked fell by one million, or 0.1 per cent.

Additional reporting: Joe Kelly