Roy Morgan has refuted the Australian Bureau of Statistics unemployment results, asserting “real” unemployment notched 11% in August, almost twice the announced 5.3%.
According to the ABS, unemployment remained unchanged in August despite a surge in full-time jobs.
Roy Morgan claims “real unemployment” has hit a two-year high, up 0.8% from the previous year.
Michele Levine, Roy Morgan CEO, asserts high unemployment stems from Australia’s workforce booming faster than employment growth.
“The fast growing Australian workforce not providing enough jobs to make a real dent in Australia’s unemployment and under-employment is not a new phenomenon”
“In addition to the surging workforce, most of the increase in employment during Turnbull’s Prime Ministership was part-time. Nearly 350,000 net part-time jobs were created over the last three years compared to a net increase of under 20,000 full-time jobs.”
[Roy Morgan]
[Roy Morgan]
For the month of August, the number of full-time workers climbed 33,700, with part-time employees lifting 10,200.
Hiring pace has remained strong throughout the year, albeit weaker than 2017’s record results.
In August, workforce participation rate notched 65.7%, up from 65.6% in July.
As previously reported, Q2 economic growth significantly beat expectations, however, wage growth has remained flat.
Ongoing housing price declines coupled with falling household savings, have lead commentators to believe the RBA will keep its benchmark cash rate target low for the time being.
