Yahoo Finance Victorian jobs fell as those in rest of Australia made modest gains, payroll figures reveal
Employment in Victoria, which is grappling with a second wave of Covid-19 infections, tumbled as jobs in the rest of the country made modest gains, new statistics show.
The fall came after the prime minister, Scott Morrison, talked down the prospect of federal aid for Victoria, where the state government has ordered many businesses to close in an attempt to stem coronavirus infections.
Weekly payroll job figures released by the Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday showed a fall of 2% in Victoria in the month to 22 August, compared with a rise of 0.1% in the rest of Australia.
In Victoria, payroll jobs were 7.9% below levels recorded in mid-March, when Australia recorded its 100th coronavirus case, and down 2.9% for the rest of the nation.
Economists caution that the payroll jobs figures are experimental. They record the number of jobs on the payrolls of employers, so some workers with more than one job may be counted more than once in the figures.
Even so, economists expect the state’s recovery to be slowed after the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, on Sunday ordered an extension of a six-week lockdown of key industries for at least another fortnight.
“We expect the employment market to remain weak in Victoria in coming months and the unemployment rate to peak higher than the national average,” economists at the Commonwealth Bank said in a note to clients.
“Big employers like retail and hospitality are not slated to reopen til November under the reopening plans announced on 6 September.”
Callam Pickerin, Asia-Pacific economist for jobs website Indeed, said the national economic recovery had stalled and more government support would be needed.
“Obviously Victoria is at the centre of that, but given restrictions won’t be lifted in a meaningful sense for some time, the economic recovery for Australia will be slower than initially expected,” he said.
“Policymakers will need to be proactive in the coming months and there should be concern that rates of jobseeker and jobkeeper are being reduced when unemployment remains so high.
The transition to lower rates of support will surely be disruptive for some industries and, certainly for Victoria, may lengthen or deepen the economic damage of Covid-19.”
However, Morrison on Monday said the Victorian government bore responsibility for supporting the state’s economy, saying Victoria was already drawing more support from the commonwealth than other states through jobkeeper and jobseeker payments.
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The prime minister is under pressure from a group of backbenchers who are concerned about increasing already record government spending to battle a coronavirus-induced economic recession.
“The other thing that I’d be looking forward to seeing soon is the announcement by the Victorian government about … the economic support plan they will be delivering to Victoria to mitigate the economic consequences of the plan that they’ve outlined,” Morrison said.
“It is right that the Victorian government make the first response to set out what [economic supports] they will put in place to deal with the measures that they have put in place.
“The commonwealth government is already providing significant assistance to Victorians through the many programs we’ve had in place now for many months.”
