Peter Downes of Outlook Economics supports the federal government’s decision to prioritise jobs and wages growth in the Budget on 11 May. He says the target of reducing the jobless rate to less than 5% will not be easy, but he contends that it should be done sooner than later.
Deloitte Access Economics has estimated that up to 200,000 new jobs would need to be created in order to bring the unemployment rate below 5%. Chris Richardson of Deloitte agrees that delaying Budget repair until unemployment is “comfortably” below this level is the right policy.
From The AFR:
