Low Unemployment Rate Wasn’t Due to Luck: Australian Treasurer

Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg delivers his National Press Club budget address at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on March 30, 2022. Martin Ollman/Getty Images

Australia’s unemployment rate remained unchanged in March 2022, which failed to meet economists’ expectations but still gave confidence to authorities.

Earlier, economists had anticipated the unemployment rate to drop slightly to 3.9 percent in March, reaching the lowest level since the 1970s.

New workforce data from the Australia Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed that the jobless rate still stayed at a 14-year low of four percent during the month, though there was a minimal dip in the number of unemployed people.

However, when taken to two decimal places, economists said the actual rate was 3.95 percent, the lowest figure since 1974.

“Our economic plan is working. An economic plan that helps steer Australia through the biggest economic shock since the great depression.” Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told reporters in Melbourne.

“If you think that’s luck. You’re wrong. It’s the success that belongs to 26 million Australians.”

Meanwhile, the women’s jobless rate continued to decrease faster than men’s.

The unemployment rate for females dropped by 0.1 percent to 3.7 percent in March, the lowest level since May 1974.

At the same time, the figure for males stabilised at 4.2 percent, the second-lowest level since November 2008.

Australia’s employment recovery has remained strong, considering the jobless rate reaching a 22-year high of 7.4 percent during the economic downturn in mid-2020.

Both the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Treasury are predicting the unemployment to fall to 3.75 percent later in 2022.

A courier crosses the road to deliver food in the central business district in Sydney, Australia, on May 14, 2020. Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty Images

Nevertheless, deputy leader of the Labor party Richard Marles said Australians were struggling to make ends meet because of low wage growth while the government was praising itself.

“This is not bad luck,” Marles told Nine News.

“This is a deliberate design feature by this government of the economy. This is bad policy.”

Labor leader Anthony Albanese, who was campaigning in the electorate of Cessnock in New South Wales, also emphasised that half a million Australians still had to work three jobs or more.

“That is an increase of 50 per cent since this government came to office,” he told reporters before the latest figures were released.

Meanwhile, Andrew McKellar, the chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that businesses were enduring the most serious labour shortages in 48 years, along with the highest job vacancy rates ever recorded.

“Without a comprehensive strategy to address workforce shortages, businesses who are already stretched with an ultra-tight labour market will be pushed to breaking point,” he told AAP.

“The next federal government must pull all the levers it can to address chronic skills shortages.”

On April 12, Prime Minister Scott Morrison promised to add 1.3 million jobs to the labour market in the next five years before unveiling support packages for other industries in the following days.

“My priorities are jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs and jobs,” Morrison told reporters on the campaign trail in Launceston.

The ABS reported that around 18,000 people got employed in March, nearly half the figure economists had expected.

At the same time, a tighter labour market pressures the central bank to lift the cash rate from the record low of 0.1 percent, which has remained unchanged since November 2020.

“We expect that the RBA will want to see wages data before commencing the tightening cycle, and we continue to look for the first hike in June,” said Jo Masters, the chief economist at Barrenjoey, an investment consulting firm.