The latest job mobility report from the Australia Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revealed that the job mobility rate decreased to 8 percent in February 2024, compared to 9.6 percent during the same period.
This means that 1.1 million Australians decided to change their jobs in the 12 months to last February.
“In the 12 months to February 2024, around 8 percent of employed people, or 1.1 million people, changed their employer or business,” said Bjorn Jarvis, ABS head of statistics.
“This was down 1.5 percentage points from 9.6 percent in February 2023 and back to around what we typically saw during the five years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The ABS also noted that there were 1.9 million potential workers or people who were not employed but wanted to work, up from 1.8 million last year.
“Of the people who wanted to work, just over 1 million people were available to start work straight away, and an additional 483,000 people were available to start within four weeks but not immediately. The remaining 330,000 people said they weren’t going to be available for more than a month,” Mr. Jarvis said.
The report said that younger Australians aged 15 to 24 were more likely to switch careers compared to older Australians. The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) had the highest rate of job mobility at 10.6 percent, down by 1.8 percent from last year.
Additionally, 2.1 million Australians have left or lost their jobs, down from 2.3 million in the same period last year.
Around 27 percent of the people who left or lost their jobs were said to be individuals who sought better career opportunities or just wanted change.
Other reasons included poor work arrangements, hours, or pay, family reasons, and retirement.
Meanwhile, national employer association Australian Industry Group (Ai Group) said that the federal government’s latest industrial relations changes are expected to increase job insecurity among Australians.
Ai Group CEO Innes Willox said that while there has been some success in winding back proposed changes such as restricting casual employment, providing unions with more power to enter workplaces, and stricter regulation of the gig economy, employers are still wary of the other proposals, which may impact businesses.
Mr. Willox cited the “right to disconnect” as one of the proposals that employers think is unfair, as the Fair Work Act and awards already regulates the extent to which employees may be required to work outside hours.
Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor MP earlier said that the current government policies hurt Australians because of the high cost of living.
“The Albanese Labor Government has completely failed to address the source of Australia’s cost of living crisis—inflation,” Mr. Taylor said.
“The Albanese Labor government has no vision for a low inflation, strong growth economy. They have no plan for economic prosperity.”
Meanwhile, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the government’s focus was on rolling out its tax cuts this month to help with cost of living.
“The Tax Office tells us that something like 8.8 million Australians have already received a tax cut this year,” told Sky News on July 14.
“We expect around two million Australians will get their tax cut in the next fortnight and ... 2.5 million or a little bit more Australians who are on awards, they get a pay rise this month as well.
“This is all about ensuring that people can earn more and keep more of what they earn.”
