with
BRENDAN O’CONNOR MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT AND INDUSTRY 
MEMBER FOR GORTON

New ABS figures confirm that more than two hundred thousand jobs still haven’t “come back”.
 
If this week’s mid-year update doesn’t present a comprehensive plan for those hundreds of thousands of workers it will just be another marketing exercise.
 
These numbers show that what looks like a recovery on paper will continue to feel like a recession for many Australians. 
 
If the economy was as strong as the Treasurer claims, there wouldn’t still be a million Australians stuck in the jobless queues, 1.4 million workers underemployed and more left out and left behind in this recovery.
 
220,000 jobs have been lost since the virus outbreak began, with the latest ABS Payroll Jobs and Wages data showing that since the beginning of the crisis:

• Payroll jobs have decreased by 2.0 per cent and total wages have decreased by 2.6 per cent
• Payroll jobs worked by males decreased by 3.8 per cent and those worked by females decreased by 2.2 per cent
• Jobs worked by people aged 70 years and over decreased by 11.7 per cent
• Jobs in accommodation and food services decreased by 12.8 per cent and Information media and telecommunications decreased by 11.6 per cent

These latest jobs figures come as the Reserve Bank said “the recovery was still expected to be uneven and protracted” and that “an extended period of high unemployment was in prospect.”
 
While too many Australians and communities are hurting, the Liberals and Nationals are reverting to form and using the pandemic as an excuse to cut workers’ pay, cut super and strip protections from borrowers.
 
Instead of a plan from the Morrison Government to deal with flat wages, high unemployment, small business closures and big businesses cutting jobs, Australians are getting a wasted recovery which is leaving too many people behind.
 
TUESDAY, 15 DECEMBER 2020