MAY 2011 – AUSTRALIAN JOB PROFILE

From May 2010 to May 2011the unemployment rate dropped from 5.2 percent to 5.0 percent, still about one percent higher than that inherited by the Labor Government, but looking surprisingly sensitive to any further interest rate increases.

Unemployment rates are normally one percent lower in middle income suburbs, than in poor suburbs. Unemployment in rich suburbs is normally about one percent lower again than in middle income suburbs.

This range of about two percent between the richest and poorest streets gets compressed in a downturn as high income jobs are lost first, often before the slump is identified as such, but then low income jobs get created quickly by the initial Government fiscal stimulus only to be lost soon afterwards, when unskilled wages rise during what appears to be a real recovery.

In broad macro terms unemployment seems to be a lagged indicator, but all the while the profile of the unemployed is churning furiously beneath the surface of the national aggregates. For example, during the worst of the Australian down turn in mid-2009 low income workers had more chance of finding a job than middle income workers and were pretty close to high income workers.

Read FULL REPORT – Australian Job Profile – May 2011