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Editor's note
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Until this week, throughout 40 years of droughts, floods, economic crises and recessions, the worst that had ever happened to total Australian employment in any one month was a drop of 75,000.
The drop for April, released yesterday, was more than half a million – 594,300 – taking the number of Australians in work down from a high of 13 million to 12.4 million, in just one month.
And as Jeff Borland points out this morning, the rules used by the Bureau of Statistics in compiling the figures mean they massively understate what’s happened.
Still counted as employed are the people who have taken paid or unpaid leave, or been stood down but expect to return. And the 4.7 million on JobKeeper.
Borland says the best way to get a handle on the full extent of what’s happened is to look at total hours worked. (This gets around the Bureau’s much-criticised practice of counting someone who works for one hour a week as “employed”).
Total hours worked are down 9.2% in one month. The hours worked in full-time jobs fell only 6.3%. The hours worked in part-time jobs – those highly likely to be worked by women and young people in hospitality and retail – fell by almost a quarter.
P.S. As we approach the end of our second week of our annual donation campaign, a big thank you to the 6,464 (and counting!) readers who have so generously donated. This year, your support matters more than ever. Thank you.
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Peter Martin
Section Editor, Business and Economy
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Top stories
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ABS
Jeff Borland, University of Melbourne
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Environment + Energy
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Business + Economy
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Cities
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Education
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