If economists are right, Anthony Albanese will have to learn a new unemployment rate when the latest labour force figures are released.
The opposition leader stumbled on the first day of the federal election campaign when he couldn’t recall the current jobless rate, despite the government boasting about it over the past month.
The unemployment rate fell to a 14-year low of four per cent in February and economists predict it could go even lower when the March figures are released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday.
“I certainly hope it has a ‘3’ in front of it later today. I want to see the unemployment rate as low as possible,” Mr Albanese told reporters in Cessnock NSW on Thursday.
However, he said there are half a million Australians who are having to work three jobs or more.
“That is an increase of 50 per cent since this government came to office,” he said.
The consensus forecast among economists points to a jobless rate of 3.9 per cent in March, a level not seen since 1974 when the jobs data was gathered on a quarterly basis.
Forecasts range from 3.8 per cent to 4.1 per cent.
The jobs recovery has been the stand-out feature of Australia’s rebound from recession, when the unemployment rate hit a 22-year high of 7.4 per cent during the downturn in mid-2020.
Both the Reserve Bank of Australia and Treasury are forecasting an unemployment rate of 3.75 per cent later this year.
Economists also expect the number of people employed to have risen by 30,000 in March, extending the rebound after the COVID-19 Omicron variant outbreak at the turn of the year, albeit at a slightly slower pace of growth due to the recent floods in southeast Australia.
Forecasts range from a 60,000 jobs rise to a 25,000 fall.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison this week pledged 1.3 million jobs will be created within the next five years, building on gains in past years.
But it comes at a time when there are already acute skills shortages, partly reflecting the absence of skilled migrants due to closed international borders trying to contain the pandemic.
“My priorities are jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs and jobs,” Mr Morrison told reporters in Launceston on Thursday.
