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Australia’s official unemployment has fallen to 3.5%, its lowest rate since 1974. It’s an amazing result, according to University of Melbourne labour economist Jeff Borland – even with demand for labour being inflated by so many workers being absent due to sickness.
There is a record-high proportion of the population employed – 64.4% – as well as a record-high proportion of vacant jobs: 3.4%.
For many of us, the big question is whether low unemployment will lead to higher wages – as the laws of supply and demand suggest they should. Wages grew by just 2.4% in the year to March, while prices rose by 5.1%, meaning real wages declined by 2.7%.
This, as Borland explains, is due to the lag in wage decisions, particularly for those on enterprise bargaining agreements, but he sees some hopeful signs for the future.
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Tim Wallace
Deputy Editor: Business + Economy
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Jeff Borland, The University of Melbourne
Australia has its lowest unemployment rates in almost 50 years – helped along by high numbers of employees off work sick.
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Niro Kandasamy, University of Sydney
Protestors are occupying the presidential palace and Sri Lankans are suffering shortages of food, petrol and other supplies. The country is in chaos- and it isn’t just because of the economy.
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Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
We have reached a hinge point in the pandemic, and coming weeks pose a huge challenge for political leaders. The community has moved on from COVID. But COVID has not moved on from the community. It has dug in.
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Jack Feehan, Victoria University; Vasso Apostolopoulos, Victoria University
If you’re aged 30 or over and it’s been three months since you either had COVID or received your last COVID vaccine, you’re eligible for a booster.
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Andrew Macintosh, Australian National University; Don Butler, Australian National University; Megan C Evans, UNSW Sydney
Our new analysis suggests the vast majority of carbon credits granted for regrowing native forests either has not occurred, or would have occurred anyway.
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John Halsey, Flinders University
The Australian approach to lifting standards of schooling has a crucial blind spot: the role of the people and communities outside school in supporting students.
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Simon During, The University of Melbourne
The humanities are labouring under a culture of managerialism – could the answer lie in reconnecting old traditions to post-1960s progressivism?
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Politics + Society
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Lydia McGrady, University of Technology Sydney
In NSW and wider Australia, there is a history of First Nations people fighting for land rights. However, while there have been successes, there are a significant number of unprocessed claims in NSW.
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Lucas Walsh, Monash University
Too often, young people’s voices are sought in tokenistic or symbolic ways. Can Labor’s new youth engagement model do things differently?
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Health + Medicine
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David King, The University of Queensland
Some lozenges are more effective than others at soothing a sore throat.
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Stavros Selemidis, RMIT University; Doug Brooks, University of South Australia; John O’Leary, Trinity College Dublin
Now we’re all accustomed to self-testing at home, we should consider using rapid antigen tests for flu as well.
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Science + Technology
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Alicia (Lucy) Cameron, Data61
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to boosting innovation – but we can learn a lot from what has worked and failed in the past.
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Alexia Maddox, RMIT University
Anyone who has trawled through an internet forum will have seen how anonymity can change people. What happens when young people are thrown into the mix?
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Environment + Energy
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Ying Ian Chen, Deakin University; Srikanth Mateti, Deakin University
Our new approach lets us separate, store and transport tricky gases like hydrogen as a solid - and for a fraction of the energy.
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Robert Nelson, The University of Melbourne
Official advice suggests warming your house to 18℃. But it’s perfectly possible to live in an unheated house with personal warming devices and better clothing.
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Education
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Gemma Sou, RMIT University; Adeeba Nuraina Risha, Brac University; Gina Ziervogel, University of Cape Town
A comic aimed at high school students looks at the ways people have adapted to climate change in five countries.
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Cranlana Centre for Ethical Leadership at Monash University
Melbourne VIC, Australia
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Auckland, New Zealand
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