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

Today’s ABS Labour Force figures confirm that nearly one million Australians are unemployed in the deepest recession in almost 100 years and in the absence of a jobs plan from the Morrison Government.
 
While we welcome the fact there has been a modest improvement in the figures, hundreds of thousands of Australians have still lost jobs since the start of the crisis and hundreds of thousands have given up looking for one. We do fear that without the appropriate support for the economy and jobs, things are going to get worse.
 
In the middle of a jobs crisis with the Government still expecting unemployment to increase, it makes no sense for Scott Morrison to be cutting support from the economy, particularly with no jobs plan to replace it.
 
The Government should reconsider its cuts to JobKeeper at the end of September which will only make the recession deeper and jobless queues longer.
 
Nearly one million Australians are unemployed, with 413,600 jobs lost since the virus outbreak, and over 1.5 million Australians underemployed.
 
Even Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg have conceded that the effective unemployment rate is much higher than the official measure suggests.
 
Instead of a jobs plan, Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg want to wind back JobKeeper, cut super, cut wages, freeze the pension, point the finger and shift the blame.
 
Australians need and deserve a plan from the Morrison Government to promote growth, protect and create jobs, support business and set us all up for the recovery.

THURSDAY, 17 SEPTEMBER 2020