with
 BRENDAN O'CONNOR
SHADOW MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT AND INDUSTRY
SHADOW MINISTER FOR SCIENCE
SHADOW MINISTER FOR SMALL AND FAMILY BUSINESS
MEMBER FOR GORTON

New ABS data today confirms the jobs crisis is getting worse, not better, with 520,000 payroll jobs lost since the virus outbreak during Australia’s first recession in three decades.
 
Faced with mounting job losses and rising unemployment, the Morrison Government is removing substantial JobKeeper support from the economy without any jobs plan to replace it.

The new legislation doesn’t specify the JobKeeper rate so Josh Frydenberg alone has the power to decide what that rate is and who receives it.
 
Labor has always said that support needs to be tailored to conditions in the economy and the pace of the recovery.

We can’t afford to see more Australians left out and left behind because Scott Morrison is not prepared to respond to developments in the labour market or come up with a proper plan for jobs.
 
Today’s Weekly Payroll Jobs and Wages in Australia by the ABS shows that since 14 March:

• Payroll jobs have dropped by 4.9 per cent and total wages paid has fallen 6.2 per cent.
• Victoria was the state hardest hit with payroll jobs declining by 7.8 per cent.   
• Payroll jobs for women declined by 4.7 per cent and male payroll jobs decreased by 5.3 per cent.
• Payroll jobs in the accommodation and food services sector decreased by 18.0 per cent and fell by 15.3 per cent in the arts and recreation industries.
• Payroll jobs worked by people aged 20-29 decreased by 7.2 per cent and those worked by people aged 70 and over fell by 11.5 per cent.

While the labour market has slowed noticeably in Victoria, too many Australians continue to join unemployment queues right across the country as the jobs crisis intensifies.
 
The number of payroll jobs fell in six states and territories over the period 25 July to August 8 and payroll jobs are still down significantly across every state and territory since the start of the COVID-19 crisis.
 
Some of the hardest-hit industries are those that have been and remain deliberately excluded from JobKeeper.
 
The biggest job losses have been concentrated in hospitality and the arts, with young Australians and elderly Australians hardest hit.

The most important test of the Morrison Government’s management of the recession and its aftermath is what happens to jobs and the businesses which create them.
 
Workers, businesses and communities need and deserve a plan from the Morrison Government to promote growth, protect and create jobs, support business and set Australia up for the recovery.