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4.9%

(ABC News - more to follow)

Unemployment rate falls in April
10 May, 2012 11:36 AM



Australia's unemployment rate beat expectations of a rise in April, falling below five per cent, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

ABS data showed the total number of Australian jobs grew by 15,500, or 0.1 per cent, to 11,501,000 in the month.

Unemployment in Australia fell in April, against expectations of a rise, according to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The result sees the unemployment rate fall to 4.9 per cent.

Economists had expected the data to show a loss of 5,000 jobs in April after a surprise jump of 44,000 in March.

The unemployment rate was tipped to grow to 5.3 per cent, according to an AAP survey of 15 economists.

Part-time employment led the unexpected fall in the April unemployment rate, which jumped by 26,000 persons to 3,438,200.

Full-time employment dropped by 10,500, or 0.1 per cent to 8,062,800 people.

The participation rate decreased 0.1 points to 65.2 per cent.



http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Surprise-unemployment-rate-fall-in-April-pd20120510-U63ND?OpenDocument&src=tnb

hu hum... yes part time went up full time went down...

depends on what type of employment you prefer I guess..

was there something on the news today about the car industry [in this country]is about finished?????....


what!!!! after all those millions we have ploughed into the bloody thing.

It must be all those 3 hour a week jobs.

The result sees the unemployment rate fall to 4.9 per cent.

I went to the shopping mall the other day, and guess what?.  I saw Elvis.   ;D

it was 3.9 in nov 2007.

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/charts/unemployment-rate-major-countries.png

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/unemployment-rates-list-by-country

Published:April 4, 2012
1:41:07 PM




Lookin' GOOD !

wrote on May 10^th, 2012 at 12:20pm:

The result sees the unemployment rate fall to 4.9 per cent. I went to the shopping mall the other day, and guess what?.  I saw Elvis.   ;D

It's an LOL moment.

What will they say when it drops to 1% and there's 2 million people out of work? bludgers don't want a job.

longweekend58 wrote on May 10^th, 2012 at 12:33pm:

it was 3.9 in nov 2007.

And the RBA cash rate target was one of Howard's "record lows" - of 6.75%

Then came the GFC

Was Australia's unemployment rate close to the LOWEST in the WORLD, in November, 2007 ?

You guys must LOATHE the release of these figures - EVERY TIME



http://bloggfiler.no/mallesmagiskeverden.blogg.no/images/665257-7-1326315108142.jpg

Murray Goulburn sheds 301 jobs after revamp
May 10, 2012 -

The job losses continue at Australia's largest dairy food processor and marketer, co-operative Murray Goulburn, which today announced 301 positions would go.   :(

Murray Goulburn said 74 jobs had already gone through attrition, 168 workers at various processing sites and distribution centres would go by June, and another 59 roles at the head office in the Melbourne suburb of Brunswick would be shed by September.

The redundancies are additional to the 64 jobs lost in March when Murray Goulburn announced it would shut down its milk driers at Rochester in northern Victoria.   :(


Murray Goulburn will be left with a total work force of about 2,100 people employed mostly in rural and regional Australia.

The company announced an organisation-wide review which managing director Gary Helou said was “even more critical given the recent significant decline in world market prices due to higher global milk supply."

"This initiative will help reduce the impact of falling world prices and a high Australian dollar on our supplier/shareholders,” he said.

“These are difficult but necessary decisions to ensure that Murray Goulburn can remain competitive," Mr Helou said.   :(

The changes would improve manufacturing efficiency, reduce head office costs, and are aimed at increasing global competitiveness and deliver higher farmgate prices, Murray Goulburn said.

The company said the changes would make a significant contribution to Murray Goulburn's goal of reducing operating costs by $100 million this year. All sites remained open, production would not be affected and all employees made redundant would receive full entitlements, it said.


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/business/murray-goulburn-sheds-301-jobs-after-revamp-20120510-1yeen.html#ixzz1uQpJFs6Z

Aussies much better off now - report
May 02, 20121:10AM



MANY Australian families may be struggling to make ends meet in the current economic environment but a new report says that we are still much better off than in the previous decades.

The latest AMP.NATSEM Income and Wealth Report shows Australian household income is outpacing the cost of living over the longer term, with disposable incomes increasing 20 per cent over the last 27 years.

It says the average family is better off by $224 per week in real terms.

But the report points out that since 1984 the cost of living has skyrocketed with everyday essentials such as electricity (up 253 per cent), petrol (208 per cent) and public transport costs (287 per cent) all soaring.

But those rises have been partially offset by dramatic drops in audio visual and computing, which now cost one tenth what they did in 1984, while average prices for clothing, footwear and major household appliances have changed little, and are often lower today than 27 years ago.

AMP Financial Services managing director Craig Meller said the report shows households today are more focused on lifestyles and aspirations than they were in the 80s.

"Many Australians are leading busier lives and facing greater demands on their time, which means we're now paying for things we may not have previously, such as childcare, gardening and housekeeping," Mr Meller said.

"We've also seen a noticeable shift in spending habits with people spending more on education, holidays and eating out.

"Essentially we seem to be leading bigger lifestyles, all of which can add to perceived cost of living pressures."

The report says incomes have outpaced the cost of living across the board since 1984 and couples with children have seen their income grow by 37 per cent, single parent incomes have grown 34 per cent, and working families 22 per cent.

Expenses for secondary students have grown by 264 per cent, mostly attributed to higher private school fees.

Maintaining good health has not come cheap either - medical, dental and insurance costs have increased at even greater rates, jumping 560 per cent, 356 per cent and 346 per cent respectively.

And if think petrol prices are outrageous, think again because we are amongst the lowest in the developed world.

Only Canada, the United States and Mexico have cheaper petrol prices.

Australia's average unleaded petrol price of around $1.40 per litre is significantly cheaper than most European countries where petrol can cost more than $2 per litre.

Unsurprisingly, Sydney is the most expensive city in Australia, and Adelaide is the cheapest.


http://www.news.com.au/money/aussies-much-better-off-now-report/story-e6frfmci-1226344222025#ixzz1uQrkz1rV




http://chicagoist.com/attachments/Margaret%20Lyons/2007_12_26.scrooge.jpg





Very rare good news: Ahead of the budget we've hit the shops
Tuesday, May 08, 2012



Treasurer Wayne Swan will take into tonight’s budget a rare piece of good economic news - we appear to be returning to the shops.

After twelve months in which retail spending scarcely grew at all, inching ahead less than 0.2 per cent per month, in March sales jumped 0.9 per cent, enough to restore the annual increase to a healthy 3.7 per cent.

“It’s a picture of strength,” said Westpac economist Matthew Hassan. “Despite fragile consumer confidence, an out-of-cycle rate increase, a stuttering labour market, intensifying concerns over jobs, super-cheap imported goods available online and some indifferent summer weather, something has got consumers out and shopping.”

Even more impressive is the Bureau of Statistics measure of the volume of goods bought, which it calculates by subtracting changes in prices.

The Bureau says in the three months to March food sales jumped 2.5 per cent, clothing and shoe sales 3.2 per cent, and takeaway food and restaurant sales 3.9 per cent.

In each case the jump appears to have been spurred by lower prices, some dramatically lower. The Bureau says food prices slid 1.8 per cent in the three months to March, clothing and shoe prices 1.4 per cent and takeaway and restaurant food prices 0.5 per cent.

“It seems like lower prices had a lot to do with it,” said CommSec chief economist Criag James. “There has never been a bigger fall in retail prices in 30 years. A stronger Australian dollar, cheaper food, on-going innovation in technology goods, strong global competition and good old fashioned discounting have prompted Aussies to part with their cash again.”

The lift in retail sales comes ahead of the schoolkids bonus of $410 for each primary school child and $820 for each high school child due to go into more than one million bank accounts in June and the clean energy payments of between $87 and $110 per child due to go into the same accounts in May.

It also precedes the Reserve Bank’s 0.50 point interest rate cut... more than half of which will flow through to lower mortgage rates.


http://www.petermartin.com.au/2012/05/very-rare-good-news-ahead-of-budget.html

Peter Martin is economics correspondent for Australia's two leading newspapers.

I just heard the NAB bloke on the radio. I think he's p1ssed off because they had to lay staff off and businesses or individuals are not borrowing.

He imitated that not all is as rosy as the government are making out. He said ignore the figures and look at reality. Casual and part-time workers don't borrow and many fall into the tax free threshold, so there's no revenue coming from them either.

By STATE ...


The state-by-state jobless rates may also baffle some commentators.

Despite a slew of job losses in the manufacturing sector lately, the unemployment rate in Victoria plunged last month to 5.3 per cent from 5.8 per cent in March, seasonally adjusted, the ABS said.

New South Wales, the most populous state, saw the jobless rate tick higher to 4.9 per cent from 4.8 per cent in March.

ANZ's Mr Fabo dubbed the 23,000 jobs created in Victoria ‘‘pretty unbelievable’’ given other reports on the health of the state’s economy.

In Western Australia, the jobless rate slid to 3.8 per cent from 4.1 per cent over that time, while in Queensland, it dropped to 5.1 per cent from 5.5 per cent, the ABS said.

In South Australia the unemployment rate was steady at 5.2 per cent over the two-month period, while in Tasmania it soared to 8.3 per cent in April from 7 per cent in March, the ABS said

http://www.smh.com.au/business/jobless-rate-in-surprise-fall-20120510-1ye84.html?skin=text-only


Australia's jobless rate remains among the lowest for a rich nation.

The US has 8.3 per cent out work, while 10.9 per cent in the eurozone are looking for work as are 8.3 per cent in Britain.

Unemployment under labour: UNACCEPTABLE! LABOUR IS DESTROYIN' ALL THE JOBS!

Unemployment under LNP: THEY'RE JUST SLACKERS NO WORRIES!

longweekend58 wrote on May 10^th, 2012 at 12:33pm:

it was 3.9 in nov 2007.

LIAR, and here is a link to prove it,liar.

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/australia/unemployment-rate

Does anyone have the participation rate and the underemployment rate for this period?

Every lie from a liberal is a white lie.

They know what is best for us these philosopher kings, oh how thoroughly we can trust us to tuck us in. Sleep well in your bed of liberal lies, stuffed with wonders alike the feathers of angels.

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3996424.html

The Treasurer asserts that we are close to full employment. That is a lie. The ABS estimates broad labour wastage (unemployment and underemployment) to be around 12.5 per cent at present. Further, the last time the Australian economy failed to produce any net gain in employment (as in 2011) was in 1992 when we were enduring our worst recession in 60 years. The burst of employment growth driven by the fiscal stimulus has now ended.

Digging deeper reveals some shocking facts that the Treasurer ignores. Since the downturn began in February 2008, the economy has added some 693,000 jobs in net terms (up to March 2012). Over the same period, 15-19-year-olds have lost 81,000 jobs overall, the vast majority being full-time.

The supply impacts (that is, the reduced participation rate) are also devastating. The teenage participation rate in January 2008 was 61.4 per cent. By March 2012 it was 55.3 per cent with no significant change in educational participation. The participation plunge occurred because teenagers became discouraged in their job search as their employment opportunities vanished. A staggering 91,000 teenagers have dropped out of the labour force.

Economists refer to these workers as the hidden unemployed. They would take a job immediately if offered, but are classified by the ABS as being not in the labour force because they have given up searching.

In March 2012, the official ABS teenage unemployment rate was 16.5 per cent. If we counted the 91,000 hidden unemployed teenagers as unemployed then the teenage unemployment rate would rise to 24.8 per cent. Further, the ABS underemployment rate for this cohort is around 13.5 per cent (the ABS only publish this for 15-24-year-olds). Taken together, the broad labour force underutilisation rate in March 2012 for teenagers is around 38.3 per cent, which is up there with the worst nations.

Maqqa wrote on May 10^th, 2012 at 2:35pm:

Does anyone have the participation rate and the underemployment rate for this period?

Participation rate:

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/6202.0

For April 2012  (not 2010, as stated in the thread title).

Cheapest countries in the world for petrol. The prices are in British Pence.


Position
     Country
     City
     Average price per litre
1
     Venezuela
     Caracas
     2/3p
2
     Saudi Arabia
     Riyadh
     8p
3
     Libya
     Tripoli
     9p
4
     Turkmenistan
     Ashgabat
     12p
5
     Bahrain
     Manama
     13p
6
     Kuwait
     Kuwait City
     14p
7
     Qatar
     Doha
     15p
8
     Egypt
     Cairo
     19p
9
     Oman
     Muscat
     20p
10
     Algeria
     Algiers
     20p

Maqqa ... cheap trick to deliberately highlight teenage participation rates at the expense of total participation rates ... but I've come to expect that from you