with
BRENDAN O’CONNOR MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT AND INDUSTRY
SHADOW MINISTER FOR SCIENCE
SHADOW MINISTER FOR SMALL AND FAMILY BUSINESS
MEMBER FOR GORTON

Today’s ABS Labour Force figures reveal that more than one million Australians are unemployed for the first time ever, with 528,000 jobs lost since the virus outbreak.
 
This new record gives Scott Morrison 1,009,400 reasons to bring forward a comprehensive plan for jobs and the recovery.

On average, something like 2,400 extra people have joined the jobless queue every day of this crisis - 16,000 between June and July alone.
 
Every day without a jobs plan means too many Australians without a job. 
 
Even numbers this grim and this confronting don’t tell the full story of underemployment and job insecurity that are devastating the labour market and threatening the recovery.
 
It still remains to be seen how the Victorian lockdown and September cliff will affect unemployment, but we do know that the Morrison Government and the Reserve Bank expect up to 400,000 additional workers to lose their jobs before Christmas. 
 
Scott Morrison’s silence on a plan for jobs and the recovery is deafening.
 
Australians can’t afford to wait until the October Budget for a proper jobs plan from this Morrison Government.
 
THURSDAY, 13 AUGUST 2020