Canberra, July 17 (UNI) Australia’s unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level in almost 50 years. According to labor force data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Thursday, the official un-employment rate in June was 3.5 percent, down from the
3.9 percent was recorded for the previous three months.
This is the lowest unemployment rate since August 1974, when it was 2.7 percent and the survey was quarterly,” Bjorn Jarvis, ABS head of labor statistics, said in a media release. Jarvis said the large fall in the unemployment rate this month reflects more people than usual entering employment and also lower than usual numbers of employed people becoming unemployed.
“Together these flows re- flect an increasingly tight labor market, with high de- mand for engaging and retaining workers, as well as ongoing labor shortages,” Xinhua news agency reported quoting Jarvis.
An estimated 88,400 jobs were added to the economy in June, which marks the eighth consecutive monthly increase, following the easing of restrictions after the Covid lockdowns in late 2021. However, the total number of hours worked by Australians fell slightly between May and June. The drop was attributed to a surge in coronavirus cases forcing more workers to isolate.
“In line with large numbers of Covid cases in June, the number of people working reduced hours due to illness continued to be high. This reflected ongoing disruption associated with the Omicron variant and cases of influen- za,” Jarvis said.
He said there were around 780,000 people working fewer hours than usual due to their own illnesses in June 2022.
