Australian’s faced a bleak end to 2016 under the Turnbull Government. The Turnbull government has gifted Australians with a depressed jobs market characterised by an increase in the number of unemployed Australians, and a concerning rate of underemployment and youth unemployment.
Perhaps Malcolm Turnbull could set a new year’s resolution to realign his priorities and develop a jobs plan for Australians rather than simply focus on saving his own job.
According to today’s labour force figures, released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the unemployment rate has risen to 5.8 per cent, with 741,100 unemployed Australians.
Under Malcolm Turnbull there are 19,800 more people lining the unemployment queue than when the Abbott-Turnbull Government was elected in 2013 and there have been fewer full time jobs created in the past year.
There are still more than one million Australians who are underemployed – those that want more work but cannot find it.
Of particular concern is the youth unemployment rate at 13.3 per cent. Under Malcolm Turnbull, 279,800 young people not earning or learning or being given sufficient opportunities.
Australia’s young people should be afforded every opportunity to get a decent job and parents should not be concerned about their children’s future employment.
A combination of a Liberal Government in both Canberra and Perth has been destructive for the state of Western Australia. Since the 2013 election, WA has experienced an unemployment rate increase from 4.6 per cent to 6.6 per cent. There are 30,400 more Western Australians lining up at unemployment queues as a result of having Liberal Governments at a state and federal level.
The Government’s first priority must be ensuring workers in Australia can find good local jobs and ensuring businesses are training and employing local workers.
It is clear the Prime Minister has no plan for our economy and no plan to grow workers’ pay packets. The Prime Minister’s modus operandi is to create an easy to hire, easy to fire society.
This is a government that has stepped into 2017 attacking on those struggling to make ends meet through his Centrelink debt recovery debacle, while at the same time not budging from its decision to give big banks and big business at $50 billion tax cut.
Today’s jobs numbers, along with record low wages growth, combine to paint a bleak picture for Australian workers under Malcolm Turnbull’s economic management.