Economists hail 'extraordinary' (Australian) job surge.

[denem]

Source: ABC News (Aus)

Australia's unemployment rate has fallen to 5.7 per cent, after the creation of 31,200 jobs in November.

Even better news was that full-time jobs made up most of the increase, with the Bureau of Statistics survey showing 30,800 full-time positions created, seasonally adjusted.

The rise in full-time employment also pushed the ABS measure of hours worked 0.9 per cent higher, after previous weakness when employers were cutting workers' hours rather than jobs...

"They really are extraordinarily good numbers. A big rise in the total number of jobs, they're all full-time jobs as well, and they're really spread right around Australia," Macquarie's senior economist, Brian Redican, told ABC News.

Read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/12/10/2767456.htm?section=justin

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Australia, as a resources exporter, is something of a bellwether for the state of the world economy. In addition, the Aus. Federal Government adopted amongst the most aggressive fiscal stimulus of all OECD economies, taking the budget from a $20 billion surplus to a $50 billion deficit. (In relative terms, a US surplus of around $500 billion to a deficit of $1.25 trillion)

It seems to have paid off. Unemployment has peaked at less than 6 percent, barring a double dip world recession.

[depakid]

1. That's what happens when a government listens to economists who get it right

and doesn't settle for half measures or pander to failed ideology.

[denem]

4. The stimulus did not include tax rate cuts, but rather

increases in level of welfare payments and one off bonuses to welfare recipients and tax payers at critical times. They targeted payouts at times consumers would spend them, without cannibalizing the tax base.

[depakid]

8. That's exactly right

The bonus to pensioners last Christmas was brilliant- and the small businesses and retailers I spoke with all acknowledged that it saved their asses.

Remember also that the Rudd government also (wisely) targeted commercial real estate and the auto industry at just the right time.

As to the latter- exacting peomises for "greener" cars.

[Pirate Smile]

2. I didn't realize how small their population was - I googled and it said 21 million.

That is 2.5 NYC.

USA has over 300 million.

Good for them by the way.

[denem]

3. It is the US equivalent of 450,000 net new jobs.

[Oregone]

5. Canada gained 79K in November BTW

Pretty unbelievable

[denem]

6. Another resource intensive economy.

The UK is still going squarely backwards, Labour faces a complete wipe out.

[iverglas]

21. I was just gonna say that ;)

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/subjects-sujets/labour-travail/lfs-epa/lfs-epa-eng.htm

Employment rose by 79,000 in November, bringing the unemployment rate down 0.1 percentage points to 8.5%. Despite November's gain, employment was 321,000 (-1.9%) below the peak of October 2008.

Full-time employment increased by 39,000 in November, the third consecutive monthly increase. Part-time employment also rose in November (+40,000), following two months of declines.

November saw an increase in the number of private (+57,000) and public (+54,000) sector employees, while the number of self-employed workers declined (-32,000). In recent months, the number of employees in the public sector, as well as the number of self-employed, has trended up, while in the private sector, the trend has been relatively flat.

Most of the gain in overall employment in November was among women aged 25 to 54 (+51,000) and men aged 55 and over (+17,000).

Almost all the employment growth in November was attributable to the service sector (+73,000), especially educational services. With November's increase, employment in the service sector is back at its October 2008 level, while employment in the goods sector remained well below (-324,000) where it was at that time.

In other words, forestry and manufacturing are not recovering yet.


Canada is 1.5 Australias, and the US is 9 Canadas. So Canada is way ahead of Australia in total jobs, and a little behind in full-time jobs. 79,000 net new jobs is the equivalent of over 700,000 in the US.

Historically, unemployment rates are not perfectly comparable between the US and Canada because of different methods of calculation.

[AlphaCentauri]

7. Note that Australia migration numbers hit record high in 2009

instead of adopting the "blame immigrants" meme they incorporate them into the economy.

[denem]

10. There are very strong minimum wage protections in Australia

Whatever else, migration is not seen as stealing jobs by driving wage levels down.

[Fool Count]

13. To put a number to this statement, the minimum wage in Australia

is almost $15/h. And somehow that does not cause high unemployment.
Must be some kind of miracle.

[Garam_Masala]

16. Are there many undocumented inimmigrants to Australia?

My guess is none because there is 1000 miles of deep ocean
surrounding all of Australia.

[denem]

20. 'inimmigrants' ? Free Reference: None.

[depakid]

22. Apparently the poster is unaware of the wedge issues that's often been exploited

with respect to the various boat people.

http://www.the-diplomat.com/001f1281_r.aspx?artid=342

[applegrove]

9. So Krugman was right. I'll never doubt him again. He said months ago the US

stimulous wasn't nearly large enough.

[depakid]

11. Many economists recognized this

Krugman simply had the loudest bullhorn.

Something he might have said himself.

[Blue_Tires]

15. i think the amount was good enough, but poor allocation and too much other bullshit

remember all those RW governors defiantly rejecting all that 'communist' emergency funding to jump start their bankrupt economies?? even some so-called moderates were playing pick-and-choose, too "Oh, I'll take some money for roads or construction but NOTHING for my state's depleted unemployment accounts..."

[ozone_man]

23. It all went to Wall Street.

Obama did not choose wisely. Next time he should send it to Main Street and not his cronies at Goldman Sachs.

Note that this article didn't mention what kind of jobs were created in Australia. Perhaps most of them were mining and other commodity related areas. If so, as soon as the U.S./world recession returns, they might all disappear again, as commodity prices fall.

[AusDem]

12. yep, it was a prompt and robust response by the government

a large portion of the spending was on education, information related infrastructure (which Australia is quite far behind on the rest of the developed world) and other capacity, and long term projects.

however i disagree that we didn't have "tax cuts". Essentially the government handed out $900 to each and every person who had paid tax in the last tax period. arrived direct to my bank account, and I spent it on local travel, a new sofa, and beer and football. so was essentially a tax cut in disguise. This was done as part of a short term "shot to the arm" of the economy, and helped confidence, business investment, and kept otherwise decent businesses afloat. there were a few other measures like the government guaranteeing all individual bank deposits, etc.

its true that Australia is a very primary industry based economy, which is something this government is finally trying to address (as opposed to the last right wing government, which was happy to just ride on the resource boom) through better education, and incentives for manufacturing.

its pushed out our debt, but the economy is on a good path, and the government can now focus on bringing that down as revenues start to increase.

[WriteDown]

18. Interesting....

Scarily reminiscient of Bushler's 200$ to every person or was it 300$? But 900$ is a sizeable sum. Surprised it works. Glad to here from an actual Aussie poster. You guys are the best drinkers when I'm overseas.

[Selatius]

14. I am saddened that the Australians channeled the ghost of FDR better than the US did.

We have fallen so far from that high-water mark. The US appears to be in the vice grip of corporate oligarchs who only want to do things that help themselves, not everybody.

[Garam_Masala]

17. Where did they get the money to spend over tax revenues?

a) Borrow from China
b) Print paper money
c) Issue E-bonds
d) Borrow from local banks

[depakid]

19. The answer to that can be found here:

http://www.aofm.gov.au/