Australia reports 48-year-low jobless rate before election

Australia’s unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in 48 years on Thursday, giving Prime Minister Scott Morrison a potential pre-election boost.

The official statistics organization said that the jobless rate fell to 3.85 percent in April, offering some positive news just two days before the federal elections.

It was the lowest level of unemployment since 1974 when flared trousers were in vogue and US President Richard Nixon resigned following the Watergate crisis.

“More Australians are in work now than ever before,” said the ruling conservative Liberal-National Party coalition’s employment minister, Stuart Robert.

“Even in the face of global shocks like the war in Europe, Australia’s economy has remained resilient,” he boasted. “Now is not the time to risk our economy on an opposition that has no plan and makes things up on the run.”

Opinion polls show the ruling conservative coalition lagging a little behind the opposition Labor Party in a tightening election race.

However, polls show that voters are more concerned about growing living costs than employment.

Morrison has questioned opposition Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese’s economic qualifications, particularly given he forgot the unemployment number when questioned by reporters more than a month ago.

Albanese has stated that he supports increasing the minimum wage in pace with inflation, which has risen to 5.1 percent as prices in stores, gas stations, and the property market have risen.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Australian economy added 92,400 full-time employees in April.

As a result, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in April was marginally lower than the revised 3.93 percent estimate from the previous month.

– ‘Staff shortages’ –

“Overall, today’s data remain consistent with a still-tightening labor market and continued difficulty for firms in finding labor,” said National Australia Bank economist Ted Nugent.

“This should see stronger wages growth emerge as the year progresses.”

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 resources 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 finding experienced employees was particularly difficult.

Since the reopening of Australia’s international borders, which had been closed for over two years to keep out the Covid-19 virus, he claimed, more foreign jobseekers were becoming available.

Because the foreign candidates were generally inexperienced, the business was left with supervisory managers and “fresh, zero-experienced” workers, but few experienced bar and waiting personnel.