The Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday revealed the country has now lost more than 824,000 jobs over the past two months, taking employment d

Australia : Unemployment reaches 19-year high in May after loss of 227,000 jobs

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2020-06-18 03:01:59

The Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday revealed the country has now lost more than 824,000 jobs over the past two months, taking employment down to where it stood in March of 2017. Unemployment lifted from an upwardly revised 6.4 per cent in April.

The ABS revised up the April job loss to 604,000 and also wiped out the small growth in jobs that was originally recorded in March.

Unemployment is now highest in Western Australia, at 8.1 per cent, and has climbed to 7.9 per cent in both Queensland and South Australia. In NSW it is at 6.4 per cent while it has reached 6.9 per cent in Victoria. Surprisingly, unemployment fell in the ACT to 4.1 per cent.

The overall result would have been much worse but for another fall in the participation rate, which edged down to 62.9 per cent, its lowest level since 1998.

Since February, the country has shed 838,000 jobs, although the total number of people unemployed has increased by a much more modest 231,300.