The media is full of condemnation of yesterday’s nonsensical employment numbers released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), which registered the biggest ever month gain in jobs (+121,000) but contradictorily no change in the total number of hours worked.
While the result was embarrassing for the ABS, and could potentially weaken their reputation as a world-class statistical organisation, I believe it is wrong to place the blame on the ABS, which has suffered through ongoing budget cuts, which have weakened its capability.
