Long-term unemployment is the real pandemic

With the federal government vowing to quickly reboot immigration to pre-COVID levels to alleviate ‘skills shortages’, its is worth asking why the federal government is not instead seeking to better utilise Australian workers?

A new report by the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) claims that long-term unemployment across Australia is now worse than after 1991 recession:

ACOSS chief executive Cassandra Goldie said: “Long-term unemployment is at crisis levels and the government should respond with the same sense of urgency as it did to the COVID recession”…

The full text of this article is available to MacroBusiness subscribers

$1 for your first month, then:

$24.99 / month

$249 / year

Cancel at any time through our billing provider, Stripe

Share

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.