Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Rankin can't blame the media for everything. The reality is we've been through a once-in-a-century pandemic which is unfortunately putting people out of work and sending them on to the jobseeker program, and those who have seen reduced hours are going on to the JobKeeper program. What we did see in relation to jobs yesterday was some ABS weekly payroll jobs data which actually said that the number of total payroll jobs had increased by one per cent through May. This is the start of the recovery that we're seeing as the restrictions are eased as a result of our country's success in flattening the curve. It was particularly important to see payroll jobs worked by females increase by 1.4 per cent through May, compared with 0.4 per cent for males.

The member for Rankin refers to the RBA minutes. I also saw the RBA minutes. Those minutes said that the number of jobs had stabilised or increased a little, suggesting that the total decline in hours worked may be less than had previously been feared.

Dr Chalmers interjecting—

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