* Fears of wage claims and inflation
   * Market strong for men and full time work
   * Labour market very tight at present

AUSTRALIA is back to full employment, with the jobless rate having dropped to a two-year low of 5 per cent.  

Any further job gains are likely to be followed by outsized wage claims and rising inflation, based on the research of both Treasury and the Reserve Bank.

The jobs market is strongest for men seeking full-time positions, with only 4.4 per cent out of work in December.

HSBC chief economist Paul Bloxham said this reflected the types of jobs being created in the resource boom economy, in industries such as mining and construction.

"The key message is that the labour market is tight and, in our view, is set to get tighter. This will put upward pressure on wages and inflation, which will mean that interest rates need to rise," he said.


Comments on this story

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     Richo of Perth Posted at 3:46 AM January 14, 2011

         full employment? theres a few hundred thousand people who should be doing something rather than being on the dole.

     Comment
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     Marky Mark of Sydney Posted at 5:47 AM January 14, 2011

         Every time the Reserve Bank sees a drop in the Australian Dollar (which is to the benefit to some of our critical export industries but hurts the local banks and the bonuses for their executives) we see this rubbish come out. Check back to December and prove me wrong! Stop falsely manipulating the Australian dollar. Sell it off like you should have done some time ago.

     Comment
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     David of Sydney Posted at 7:02 AM January 14, 2011

         This is statistics, not reality. A person working one day a month is not employment. Underemployment is huge. We need different statistics these figures are meaningless and easily manipulated.  

     Comment
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     Coolkid of Sydney Posted at 7:25 AM January 14, 2011

         I still do not believe this fictous figure, we are barely working three days a week in NSW. May be the people are sick of looking for jobs that do not exist.Labor figures cannot be trusted.  

     Comment 4  
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     J of The Earth Posted at 8:04 AM January 14, 2011

         Well it's so expensive to live and breathe these day's how can anyone 'who doesn't want to work' live? I'm not advocating being unemployed but sure there are people who can't or don't want to work receiving government fortnightly handouts that you could barely wipe your backside with. Employement increases your quality of life depending on what your aspirations and goals are but still the idea of working 9-5 for the next 40 years of my life doesn't sound so enthralling; and yes, i do enjoy my profession, but not that much.  

Quote:


On the contrary, we have just started the "official" Baby Boomer retirement period, where the average number of Boomers reaching retirement age (in OZ), will be about 24,000 each MONTH, for the next 18 years!

In reality, the Boomer Boom actually Peaked around 1956, so the number of retirements over the next 10 years is likely to exceed that 24,000 average for the whole 18 years period!

At the current participation rate that will equate to about 240,000 of the most experienced part of the Australia workforce will retire each year, for the next 10 years.

With current "unemployed numbers" running at 618,000 for December, 2010, immigration numbers would need to be increased substantially to keep the unemployment numbers from shrinking further, IF TPTB WANT TO TRY TO MAINTAIN HISTORICAL LEVELS OF GROWTH.

All this thread is, is two idiots comparing notes. Its all been debated before and you two lack the intelligence to understand statistics and common terminology such as 'full employment'.

it's like listening to Barbie and Ken discussing nuclear physics.