More on unemployment

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So, NSW lost 12,000 full time jobs, VIC added 17,000 but that was a give back for last month’s drop of 29,000 so over two months is down 12,000, Qld and SA dropped 2,000 and WA lost 5,000. Here’s a chart of the states unemployment rates:

And here is what is about to become a very important chart in terms of gauging the Australian economy:

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Underutilisation, all of those people that would like to work more and can’t. Remember all of that labour hoarding during and after the GFC? When companies were still fighting yesterday’s war for talent and they furloughed workers rather than lose them? As the services firms that make up 70% of the economy wake to the fact that demand in the new economy for what they produce is nowhere near as strong as the old version, jobs may shrivel further and unemployment climb for some time to come.

About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.