Australia faces one of the world’s biggest employment shocks

Wednesday 15 April 2020

As reported yesterday, today’s ABS labour force release for March will not provide much insight into the Australian labour market.

This is because the March ABS survey will capture only the first half of the month. Therefore, it will miss the sharp deterioration that took place over the second half of the month as Australia went into shutdown.

This deterioration has been illustrated by Roy Morgan Research, which reported a sharp rise in its unofficial unemployment rate over the second half of March:

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About the author

Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.