Unemployment rate remains at 4.1%

Data released today (15 May) by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has revealed that the unemployment rate has remained at 4.1 per cent.

New data released by the ABS has revealed that the adjusted unemployment rate remained at 4.1 per cent in April. Despite an employment surge of 89,000 workers, the unemployment rate remained relatively unchanged – following a continued trend of the rate being confined within a narrow range of 3.9 and 4.1 per cent for the past 17 months.

“With employment increasing by 89,000 people and the number of unemployed increasing by 6,000 people, the unemployment rate remained steady at 4.1 per cent for April,” said Sean Crick, ABS head of labour statistics.

The ABS highlighted that employment as a whole has grown by 390,000 people, or 2.7 per cent, over the year. According to the data, there was also a rise of 0.9 per cent (65,000) in employment for women over the April period, compared to just 0.3 per cent (24,000) for men.

The data also showed a rise in the employment-to-population ratio of 0.3 percentage points to 64.4 per cent in April, falling just shy of the record high seen in January of 64.5 per cent.

“The participation rate for 35-44 year olds had the largest annual growth, up 1.9 percentage points to 88.3 per cent,” said Crick.

Despite the growth in employment, monthly hours worked rose marginally by 630,000 hours after two consecutive months decreased.

In total, employment grew by around 26,000 people (0.2 per cent) in the April period, adding up to a 2.5 per cent increase over the last 12 months.

Wages data released yesterday (14 May) by the ABS showed a surprise growth to 3.4 per cent annually, with public sector enterprise agreements and award changes being cited as key contributors to the increase.

“Private sector wage growth was also influenced by administrative wage adjustments due to the Stage 3 Aged Care Work Value Case, and the Early Childhood Education and Care Worker Retention Payment. It was also impacted by regular March quarter wage and salary reviews,” said Michelle Marquardt, ABS head of prices statistics.

Marquardt also touted enterprise agreements (EAs) as the main contributor to the “larger-than-usual” growth.

“Wages growth in the public sector was impacted by new state-based enterprise agreements, and to a lesser degree, increases paid to aged care workers,” said Marquardt.

“Jobs covered by enterprise agreements contributed to over half of all quarterly growth, for the first time since September 2020.”

Australian Industry Group (Ai Group) chief executive Innes Willox warned that this rapid increase in public sector wages could manifest upward pressure on the Australian economy.

“Public sector wage agreements have become increasingly out of touch with the realities of the Australian economy,” said Willox.

“Last year, Australia suffered through its worst year of economic performance since the recession of the early 1990s. While private sector wages are moderating to reflect this economic reality, public sector agreements continue to rise.

“Pressure from excessive state government wage deals puts further pressure on Australian private sector employers, who are already struggling with weak market conditions and declining profitability.

“With the fiscal position of the federal and many state government budgets already in serious question, these ongoing taxpayer-funded agreements are simply not sustainable.”