Australia's unemployment rate plummets to pre-COVID levels

Australia's unemployment rate is plummeting, falling 0.4 percentage points to 5.1 per cent in May 2021.

New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows that approximately 115,000 Australians found work between April and May, radically lowering the unemployment rate.

Australia's unemployment rate is now the same as it was in February 2020, just prior to the economic damage wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bjorn Jarvis, head of labour statistics at the ABS, said May was the seventh consecutive monthly fall in the unemployment rate.

"The unemployment rate fell to 5.1 per cent, which was below March 2020 (5.3 per cent) and back to the level in February 2020 (5.1 per cent). The declining unemployment rate continues to align with the strong increases in job vacancies" Mr Jarvis said.

"The number of unemployed people fell by 53,000 in May, down to 701,000. The number of unemployed people has fallen by around 303,000 since the peak of one million unemployed people in July 2020.

"The youth unemployment rate increased by 0.1 percentage points but remained low, at 10.7 per cent. The last time we saw a youth unemployment rate as low as in April and May 2021 was in January 2009."

The number of employed women increased by 69,000 in May, and the number of men by 46,000.

Female employment was 1.6 per cent above the start of the pandemic, compared with 0.5 per cent for men.

"The increase in female employment in May means that a higher percentage of women were in paid work than ever before – 58.8 per cent, 0.7 percentage points higher than the start of the pandemic," Mr Jarvis said.

"The difference was even greater for women aged 15 to 64, whose employment-to-population ratio in May was 1.5 percentage points above March 2020."

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has said Australia has recovered better than any other advanced economy in the world, after it was revealed the unemployment rate had fallen to 5.1 per cent.

"We saw Australia ahead of any advanced economy in the world see its economy bigger than it was going into the pandemic," Mr Frydenberg said.

"Australians know we are still in the middle of a once in a century pandemic. There is a long way to go. But the Australian economy is recovering strongly."

Here are the words of Great Southern Land by Icehouse. Two stanzas stand out to me...

You walk alone
Like a primitive man
And they make it work
With sticks and bones

You walk alone
With the ghost of time
Well, they burned you black
Black against the ground
And they make it work
With rocks and sand

With sticks and bones refers to the Aborigines and how they survived.

With rocks and sand refers to the nuclear and computer age. There were I think a dozen nuclear tests on Australian islands.

Seems now they are doing it with shots and nanobots.

Icehouse Lyrics
“Great Southern Land”

Standing at the limit of an endless ocean
Stranded like a runaway lost at sea
City on a rainy day down in the harbor
Watching as the gray clouds shadow the bay
Looking everywhere ‘cause I had to find you
This is not the way that I remember it here
Anyone will tell you it’s a prisoner island
Hidden in the summer for a million years

Great Southern Land
Burned you black

So you look into the land, it will tell you a story
Story about a journey ended long ago
Listen to the motion of the wind in the mountains
Maybe you can hear them talking like I do
They’re gonna betray you, they’re gonna forget you
Are you gonna let them take you over that way?

Great Southern Land
Great Southern Land
You walk alone
Like a primitive man
And they make it work
With sticks and bones
See their hungry eyes
It’s a hungry home

I hear the sound
Of the strangers’ voices
I see their hungry eyes
Their hungry eyes
Great Southern Land
Great Southern Land
They burned you black
Black against the ground

Standing at the limit of an endless ocean
Stranded like a runaway lost at sea
City on a rainy day down in the harbor
Watching as the gray clouds shadow the bay
Looking everywhere, I had to find you
This is not the way that I remember it here
Anyone will tell you it’s a prisoner island
Hidden in the summer for a million years

Great Southern Land
In the sleeping sun
You walk alone
With the ghost of time
Well, they burned you black
Black against the ground
And they make it work
With rocks and sand

I hear the sound
Of the strangers’ voices
I see their hungry eyes
Their hungry eyes
Great Southern Land
Great Southern Land
You walk alone
Like a primitive man
You walk alone
With the ghost of time
And they burned you black
Yeah, they burned you black
Great Southern Land

Great Southern Land
Great Southern Land
Great Southern Land

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.