SYDNEY – Australia posted its lowest jobless rate in 48 years today, a potential boost two days before federal elections to Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who is fighting to stay in power.
The unemployment rate dipped to 3.85% in April, the official statistics body said, the lowest level since 1974 – when flared trousers were in fashion and United States President Richard Nixon resigned over the Watergate scandal.
Australia’s economy created an additional 92,400 full-time jobs in the month, the Australian Statistics Bureau said.
That helped to trim April's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate from 3.93% the previous month.
Many employers say they are struggling to find staff in the tight jobs market.
“We’re definitely still feeling staff shortages,” said Matt Jenkins, human resource manager at Sydney restaurant group Applejack Hospitality.
“I know for chefs, they can have multiple job offers at a time. And even candidates that we’re speaking to, they’re sitting on offers for weeks while they still canvass the market,” he told AFP.
Bruno Goncalves, co-owner of Edes Restaurant and Bar in central Sydney, said he found it particularly hard to recruit experienced staff.
More foreign jobseekers were becoming available, he said, since the reopening of Australia’s international borders, which were shuttered for nearly two years to keep out the Covid-19 virus.
Those foreign candidates were mostly inexperienced, leaving the business with supervisory managers and “fresh, zero-experienced” workers but very few experienced bar and waiting staff.
Opinion polls show the ruling conservative coalition a little behind the opposition Labor Party in a tightening election race.
But surveys indicate the rising cost of living, not employment, is a priority for voters.
Opposition Labour Party leader Anthony Albanese’s economic credentials have been questioned by Morrison, notably since he forgot the unemployment rate when quizzed by reporters more than a month ago.
Albanese has said he supports a raise in the minimum wage in line with inflation, which has shot up to 5.1% as prices soar in the shops, at gasoline stations and in the housing market. – AFP, May 19, 2022
