Bloomberg loves a party line.
Australian unemployment held steady last month even as the economy shed jobs with fewer people looking for work, signaling the labor market remains tight and reinforcing the Reserve Bank’s cautious approach to policy easing.
There is nothing tight about the Aussie labour market. Frankly, at 4.2% unemployment, it is intrinsically loose given the shift underway from profligate public sector hiring to productivity-sensitive private, which is not going well.
More importantly, the Aussie labour market is not closed. It is part of the Indian labour market.
There, 50m unemployed could think of nothing better than an Aussie job, and Albo is giving it to them as fast as he possibly can.
He has done this on purpose, to crush wages and swell a new base of labour voters.
Why else does anybody think that in 2023 Albo signed the two worst labour market access deals in the history of Australia?
Among other things, these agreements offer:
- Indian students are granted five-year visas.
- Indian graduates with student visas from Australian universities are eligible to work for up to eight years without a sponsor.
- Indian university and vocational graduates will be accepted by Australia as “holding the comparable AQF qualification” for entrance to postsecondary education and general employment.
These arrangements are especially detrimental because India is notorious for producing phony degrees and credentials that allow their holders to work in Australia under mutually beneficial agreements.
So, what is Australia’s unemployment rate under Indian Albo’s regime?
If we include all 50m, then it is around 350%.
There are limits even for Indian Albo, so let’s just add one year’s worth of Indian immigration to the unemployment pile. About 150k. Sure, some will create jobs with their own demand, but you get the rough idea.
That would lift the Aussie unemployment rate to 5.5%, all things equal.
Still tight? I think not.
Finally, let us not forget that Albo’s Indians are unskilled and therefore compete for entry-level jobs against local youth. The shuttered borders of COVID were the greatest thing to happen to youth unemployment in Australia in fifty years.
Indian Albo is undoing that as fast as he can, just as the AI entry-level job smash begins.
Whoever this bloke works for, it sure isn’t your kids.
