After the job loss at Pacific Brands and in the car parts company in Albury yesterday (making over 2100 in all for the day), the jobs crunch has now reached the consciousness of most in the economy
Now we should have a better idea of why the Government has handed out or will hand out $52 billion in stimulus payments… and tossed in a further $300 million on Tuesday so the Jobs Network has the financial strength to handle the upsurge in unemployed workers over the next year or so.
Yesterday the head of the Federal Treasury, Dr Ken Henry, warned that the slowdown would last up to two years here. He told a Federal Parliamentary Committee that it would be broad-based.
We already have a sense of that from the current interim reporting season.
Later today the Australian Bureau of Statistics will give us another glimpse of how the resources and infrastructure boom is cracking with the December quarter’s capital spending figures.
Yesterday we had figures showing the dying embers of the investment boom with construction work done rising 1.7% in the December quarter, according to figures from the ABS.
It might be enough to give us a small bit of growth in the December quarter’s GDP figures, out next Wednesday.
The ABS said total construction work done was valued at $35.398 billion, compared with an upwardly revised $34.484 billion in the September quarter.
The result was better than the market forecast of a near 3% fall, but a surge in engineering work boosted the total figure.
Engineering work done rose to $17.150 billion from a downwardly revised $16.374 billion in the September quarter.
The ABS said total building work done in the December quarter was essentially flat at $18.176 billion, seasonally adjusted, compared with the upwardly revised $18.113 billion in the September quarter.
But that relatively good news has had no impact on employment.
Skilled job vacancies has fallen a further 11% this month.
The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) skilled vacancies index in February was 46.4 points, 52.4% lower than in February 2008.
Vacancies fell in all three occupational groups monitored by the department.
Trade vacancies declined 12.4%, associate professionals fell 7.5% and professionals dropped 6.3%.
The fall in skilled vacancies was widespread, with decreases also evident in 17 of the 18 professions monitored by the department.
The largest fall was in printing trades, down 29.4% as printing and the mainstream media chopped jobs.
The only occupation to rise was marketing and advertising professionals, up a tiny 0.4%.
The department said there was a fall in all states and territories experienced in February, the largest drop being 14.8% in Western Australia where the resources boom has well and truly evaporated.
All states and territories suffered declines in the year to February, led by NSW with a fall of 62.1%.
And figures from the ABS on wages showed a rise in the December quarter, but given the above figures and the slumping economy, it’s all academic.
The ABS said that total hourly rates of pay, excluding bonuses, rose 1.2% in the December quarter, seasonally adjusted.
The wage price index rose 4.3% from a year earlier.
The median market forecast was for a rise of 0.9% in the December quarter.
In the September quarter, the index rose by an unrevised 1.0%.
The gathering slump in employment will put added downward on wages in coming months.
