From former head of research at the RBA, Peter Jonson:
In developed nations, governments have opted for definitions of unemployment that make things look better than they really are. For over a decade, Roy Morgan Research (and myself) have been pointing this out. The latest Roy Morgan survey shows 2.3 million Australians unemployed or underemployed. In percentages of the workforce, this is 9.5 per cent unemployed and 8.5 per cent underemployed, well above the official 5.4 per cent unemployment figure. Hardly shooting the lights out.
Workers in the real jobs market understand this only too clearly, which adds to caution in claiming wage increases.
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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.
