Unemployment has hit 7 per cent overall and 15.6 per cent for young workers according to data released this morning by the ABS.
Unemployment has only reached 7 per cent 5 times since 2000, 4 of those instances have been this year.
In this environment we need strong investment from the federal government to create secure, well paid jobs. Instead the Morrison Government is scaling back JobKeeper and JobSeeker after Christmas and capping the pay rises available to its own employees.
Quotes attributable to ACTU Secretary Sally McManus:
“This data shows just how hard it is to find a job for the huge numbers of working people who have fallen into unemployment during this crisis.
“We have 1.4 million people reliant on JobSeeker and more than 3 million on JobKeeper – we need to be investing now to make sure that when JobKeeper ends there are jobs for people to move into.
“Instead of this the Morrison Government is capping pay rises for its own employees and pushing the JobMaker scheme – which may actually replace existing full time work with insecure jobs.
“Unemployment is projected to keep increasing to Christmas. The Government should be doing everything it can to create secure jobs and put money in the hands of working people so they can spend and restart the economy.”
