THE Federal Government has won glowing support for its controversial economic stimulus
, with the Western world's leading think tank saying the strategy will save up to 200,000 jobs.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's annual employment outlook says Australia will be one of the Western countries to suffer least in the global financial crisis.
And it says the Government's stimulus has already had a strong effect in cushioning the downturn,
undermining Opposition attacks on the size of the program
.
Its data shows Australia spends just 0.01 per cent of GDP on training its unemployed - the equal lowest in the OECD along with Mexico and the Czech and Slovak republics.
They show
the Howard government cut spending on active labour market programs in its last two years as the skills shortage became more acute.
By contrast, the OECD report singles out the Rudd Government's stimulus measures for praise.
It estimates Australia's stimulus has been the third largest in the Western world at 5.4 per cent of GDP, exceeded only by Korea (6.1) and the US (5.7).
''Even though many countries moved quickly to enact large fiscal stimulus packages, these packages generally have not had a strong effect in cushioning the initial decline in employment caused by the crisis, although
Australia is a notable exception
,'' it says.