April Australian employment stats show job impact of…

April Australian employment stats show job impact of coronavirus lockdown

The queue at Centrelink in King Street, Newcastle, on Monday, March 23, the day the restrictions began that saw the introduction of JobKeeper a week later. Picture: Marina Neil

THE loss of 600,000 jobs across the nation in a month, cutting the workforce by 3 per cent from 13 million to 12.4 million.

An increase of 100,000 in the number of registered jobless, rising almost 17 per cent to 820,000.

A corresponding 17 per cent increase in the unemployment rate, from 5.2 per cent to 6.2 per cent.

And an 8 per cent loss in the number of hours worked over the month.

As dramatic as these excerpts are, the April labour force figures released yesterday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics would have been far worse were it not for the federal government's coronavirus JobKeeper program.

CORONA CROSS SECTION

Interim figures indicate about 450,000 applications are keeping some 5 million people - or 40 per cent of the national workforce - in a job, and off the unemployment statistics.

In any other situation, the April collapse in employment would drive outrage and controversy, but the magnitude of the pandemic and the measures taken to control it have rendered the usual economic indicators irrelevant: at least until the global infection curve - plateaued for a month but still adding 80,000 cases a day - can be brought under some sort of evident control.

The number of people in work in Australia from April 2015 until the end of last month. Source: ABS

In the meantime, health officials around Australia will watch like hawks for spikes as the various lockdown laws - which triggered the economic shutdown as the price for public safety - are eased.

The impact on the Hunter's labour force will be revealed with next week's regional breakdown of the headline figures that show NSW lost more than 200,000 jobs last month.

On recent history, the Hunter's share will likely be about 8 per cent of that number, or more than 15,000 positions.

Although yesterday's outcomes were better than many had predicted, the May figures will likely show a further deterioration, even as different business sectors start reopening in the coming weeks.

Inevitably, there will be inequities and inconsistencies as the economy reopens, as there have been with the various lockdown and welfare programs.

But a welfare comparison with many overseas nations will show that Australians have dodged an economic bullet, as well as the worst of this deadly and persistent virus.

We will have a substantial increase in the national debt as a result, but compared with the alternatives, we should regard these borrowings as money well spent.

ISSUE: 39,606.

The national unemployment rate from April 2015 until the end of last month. Source: ABS

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