The ANU report was based on a survey by the Centre for Social Research and Methods, and report co-author Nicholas Biddle says the increase fits in with the notion of the ‘discouraged’ worker, namely someone who would like to work but does not believe there are any suitable jobs available:
The results show between February and May there was a significant drop in the number of people who reported having paid work, from 62 per cent to just over 57 per cent. A follow-up survey in late June/early July showed improvements in employment and an increase in average hours worked across the sample of a little over one hour per week.
Co-author, Professor Nick Biddle, says while these figures line up very closely with official labour market statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, there were some new and surprising results.
