Aussie unemployment already at 11%

Friday 1 May 2020

The number of Australians receiving unemployment benefits soared to 1.3 million as of April 24, from 800,000 at end-2019, Department of Social Security figures released Thursday to a parliamentary panel showed. There were a further 300,000 applications yet to be processed. Based on these numbers, the jobless rate would have jumped to 8.8%, or 10.8% if unprocessed claims are incorporated.

“The number of people receiving or seeking unemployment benefits has doubled since the end of February, with the rapid surge revealing the swift and severe hit to Australia’s labor market,” said James McIntyre, Australia economist at Bloomberg Economics. “This equates to unemployment pushing above 11% over the next few months. By comparison, Australia’s rate peaked at 11.2% following the early 1990s recession.”

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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.