politicalowl

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures suggest that Australia is becoming a part-time economy. The trend  Labour Force figures for January  show that a record high of 30.73% of jobs were part time. Back in February 1978 when the ABS series began the proportion was only 15.17%

No evidence in today’s Australian Bureau of Statistics employment figures of a healthily growing economy. I’ll settle on the aggregate monthly hours worked figures to tell the story. It has been a real sideways slide. This May’s budget will be a difficult event for Joe Hockey to negotiate.

A slight upturn in the Australian Bureau of Statistics quarterly figures for job vacancies. Total job vacancies in May 2014 were 146,100, an increase of 2.1% from February 2014. The number of job vacancies in the private sector was 135,000 in May 2014, an increase of 2.0% from February 2014. The number of job vacancies in the public sector was 11,200 in May 2014, an increase of 4.3% from February 2014. (click to enlarge) An  analysis by Westpac  also released today of new jobs created suggests  Australia’s impressive jobs growth this year is somewhat undermined by details showing the gains have been concentrated to just a few sectors. New jobs are concentrated in the services, construction and real estate sectors. There has been a stagnation in jobs created for many years outside the mining, utilities, education, health, public and business services.