A total of 1.79 million Australians (12.5 per cent of the workforce) were unemployed through July, representing a drop of 262,000 as the Australian economy began to reopen. However, an additional 1.5 million (10.5 per cent) were underemployed, up 92,000 from a month ago.
That leaves 3.28 million Australians (23 per cent) unemployed or underemployed – an improvement of 171,000 from June.
“This improvement is not unexpected as most of Australia continued to open up during July and the unemployment rates in Queensland, SA and Tasmania all dropped by 4 per cent points or more on a month ago,” said Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine. “All three have seen no community transmission of COVID-19 for at least two months.”
Unemployment is down by just over 1 per cent in WA and NSW, and NSW now has the lowest unemployment of any state.
However, the employment situation in Victoria is “virtually unchanged” from a month ago, with the new lockdown seeing employment in the state decline by around 80,000 while the number of Victorians looking for work has also dropped by around 20,000 as the workforce shrinks.
“The employment trends in July are positive, but the example of Victoria shows how any gains are put at risk by mistakes made in the containment of the virus,” Ms Levine said. “The Victorian laws to contain the virus have been progressively tightened since June but the trend of new cases suggests the current lockdown due to expire in mid-August will be extended into September and cause further economic damage to the [state].
“The situation in Victoria is serving as a clear warning to other [states], and particularly NSW, to do everything possible to get on top of new outbreaks to prevent COVID-19 [from] re-emerging and forcing another damaging economic lockdown.”
