Unemployment has increased to 5.3 per cent and underemployment has increased to 8.6 per cent according to data released this morning by the ABS.
More than a million working people need more hours of work and more than 700,000 people are unemployed.
The Morrison Government has claimed low wage growth as a feature of its economic plan and refuses to act to address persistently high underemployment and growing unemployment.
Today has shown that strategy is costing people in their pay packets and their search for jobs.
As stated by ACTU Secretary Sally McManus
“The Morrison Government is trying to hide the reality about its economic performance by focusing on the performance of rubbery budget figures while ignoring the increase in unemployment and underemployment.
“What good is a budget surplus when there aren’t enough jobs, when there aren’t enough hours, and there are thousands of workers who haven’t seen a real pay rise in almost seven years?
“A lack of real action to lift wages is driving down consumer demand and that is holding back job creation.
“Despite the warm glow from massaged budget figures that they are trying to bask in today the reality is that Morrison’s wages crisis is hurting the real economy, real jobs and real people.”
