Page 923 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 21 April 2021
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underemployment in Australia, we have the lowest level of unemployment in Australia, and we have a recovery now beyond where we were before in female employment, is that the economic policy task now is young people under 30 and men.
That is not to say that we take our eye off women’s employment and employment levels for people over 30, but the only cohorts now who have not recovered to their pre-COVID situation are young people and men. We need to look, as we frame economic policy for the next 12 months and look towards our goal of full employment—which we are getting very close to, with an unemployment rate of 3.4 per cent, 8,200 job vacancies and 8,200 people unemployed—at what programs we need to put in place to support those areas of our labour market that are still experiencing difficulty recovering from the pandemic.
Of course, these figures do change from month to month, so we will not reach absolute conclusions based on one month’s data. But looking at a year’s worth of data is now showing that the recovery in employment for women has occurred. That is a great outcome, because a year ago we were targeting our economic policy interventions to support a recovery in female employment. We have seen it, and it is fantastic to see.
Moving to some of the broader assessments of the territory economy, I quote David Robertson, the Bendigo bank Head of Economic and Market Research, who said:
The ACT economy has again demonstrated strong economic growth with good results across most indicators for the first quarter of 2021 …
Jobs … are back to pre-pandemic levels and the ACT has the lowest unemployment nationally …
Underemployment in the ACT is 5 per cent, compared with 8.5 per cent nationally …
Job advertisements are up 23 per cent year-on-year in the ACT; however, this is still a particularly challenging environment for industries exposed to international travel like the hospitality and arts and entertainment sectors.
Hence the announcement today from Minister Cheyne of further support for the arts sector. Mr Robertson continued:
With help from low-interest rates, business and consumer confidence levels are at a record 10-year high, and the ACT property market is looking at gains of 10 per cent, year-on-year, if not more …
One of the reasons for that, the principal reason, is record low interest rates. The second reason that we are seeing property values increase is the massive investment in the houses themselves. Again, vendors seek to recoup that investment. If you build a bigger house, a better quality house, you expect a higher sales price. That is the reality of the market.
As I advised, and will continue to advise the Assembly, the ACT is now the only Australian state or territory to have a AAA credit rating. Mr Robertson said:
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