Canberra: Australia’s unemployment rate has risen in October as a result of widespread coronavirus lockdowns.
According to labour force data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Thursday, the official unemployment rate for October was 5.2 per cent, up from 4.6 per cent in September, reports Xinhua news agency.
The number of employed Australians fell by 46,300, with 40,400 full-time and 5,900 part-time jobs lost between September and October.
There was also a fall of 1 million in the number of hours worked.
The underemployment rate, which measures the portion of employed people who are not working as many hours as they like, rose from 9.2 per cent to a 12-month high of 9.5 per cent.
Responding to the data, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said it was important to note that it was collected when Australians in New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory were in lockdown.
“The unemployment rate increased to 5.2 per cent, confirming what we already know, that lockdown hits jobs. Lockdowns are detrimental to the labour market,” he told reporters.
“In Victoria, in the month, around 50,000 jobs were lost and an additional 20,000 people were stood down on zero hours.”
Frydenberg declared that the Australian economy has “turned the corner.”
“Business and consumer confidence are both up – our business confidence back to where it was in April,” he said.
“Consumer confidence is up now, up eight out of the last nine weeks. Job ads are more than 30 per cent higher than they were at the start of the pandemic and at a 12-year high.”
