Australia’s unemployment rate falls to 4.5 per cent, but no cause for celebration
Australia’s unemployment rate has fallen to 4.5 per cent, but statisticians are warning that now is not the time to celebrate.
New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today revealed the unemployment rate fell 0.1 percentage point in August 2021, while the participation rate fell to 62.2 per cent.
The underemployment rate has increased to 9.3 per cent and monthly hours worked decreased by 66 million hours.
While a falling unemployment rate is usually celebrated, ABS statisticians have said the plummeting measure is a result of less Australians applying for jobs or participating in the workforce in any measure.
“The fall in the unemployment rate reflects a large fall in participation during the recent lockdowns, rather than a strengthening in labour market conditions,” Bjorn Jarvis, head of labour statistics at the ABS, said.
“Throughout the pandemic we have seen large falls in participation during lockdowns — a pattern repeated over the past few months.
“Beyond people losing their jobs, we have seen unemployed people drop out of the labour force, given how difficult it is to actively look for work and be available for work during lockdowns.
“This has also coincided with a temporary pause in mutual obligations for jobseekers living in lockdown areas.”
The data showed less Australians working overall, even if they weren’t fired or left their current job.
Nationally, hours worked decreased by 3.7 per cent in August, considerably more than the 1.1 per cent fall in employment.
This highlights the extent to which people who experienced new or continuing lockdowns had reduced hours or no work, without necessarily losing their jobs.
“Hours worked data continues to provide the best indicator of the extent of labour market impacts and recovery from lockdowns,” Mr Jarvis said.
“It shows that hours in New South Wales fell sharply over the lockdown, down by 13.0 per cent between June and August.
“The data for Victoria also shows how quickly hours can recover, coming out of a lockdown.”
Mr Jarvis said the continued lockdowns in NSW were having profound impacts on the national figures.
“Labour market changes in New South Wales continued to have a large influence on the national employment and hours worked figures. In August, there were big falls in New South Wales in both employment (-173,000) and hours worked (-6.5 per cent),” he said.
“The large falls in employment and hours in New South Wales in August followed falls in July (37,000 and 7.0 per cent), with employment and hours down by 210,000 people and 13.0 per cent since the beginning of the lockdown in late June.”
