Australia's unemployment rate falls to lowest level since the Global Financial Crisis
Australia's unemployment rate has dropped to its lowest level since the start of the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, falling 0.5 per cent to 4.2 per cent.
Around 65,000 more Australians were employed in the first two weeks of December 2021, around two-thirds of whom were men.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the figures account for a period of time just prior to an explosion of Omicron COVID-19 cases across the eastern seaboard.
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Around 65,000 more Australians were employed in the first two weeks of December 2021, around two-thirds of whom were men. The Age
"The latest data shows further recovery in employment following the large 366,000 increase in November," Bjorn Jarvis, head of labour statistics at the ABS, said.
"This provides an indication of the state of the labour market in the first two weeks of December, before the large increase in COVID cases later in the month.
"Recovery in New South Wales and Victoria continued to have a large influence on the national figures, with employment in these two states increasing by 32,000 and 25,000 people between November and December.
"Their employment was around where it had been in May having fallen 250,000 and 145,000 during the lockdowns."
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Youth employment has skyrocketed after being severely impacted during COVID-19 lockdowns. Getty
Mr Jarvis said Australia is close to matching the lowest ever unemployment rate ever in recorded modern history.
"This is the lowest unemployment rate since August 2008, just before the start of the Global Financial Crisis and Lehman Brothers collapse, when it was 4.0 per cent," Mr Jarvis said.
"This is also close to the lowest unemployment rate in the monthly series – February 2008 – and for a rate below 4.0 we need to look back to the 1970s when the survey was quarterly."
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The hospitality sector continues to suffer a worker shortage as staff are forced into isolation. Photography by Joe Ruckli for th
Of particular note were Australia's youngest workers, whose population has fluctuated greatly as COVID-19 lockdowns devastated the sectors most likely to employ new workers.
"The large changes in employment and unemployment in December saw youth labour market measures return to levels we haven't seen since the Global Financial Crisis," Mr Jarvis said.
"The youth unemployment rate fell by 1.5 percentage points to 9.4 per cent, the lowest since November 2008, and the youth participation rate increased by 0.4 percentage points to 70.5 per cent, the highest it had been since September 2008."
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