Mary Doyle (Aston, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. What does the latest labour force data say? How is the Albanese Labor government laying the foundations for more secure, well-paid jobs into the future, and why is it important to get this right?

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I acknowledge the hero in our midst, Mr Mikac. I salute you for your remarkable contribution to this country. I thank the member for Aston for her question, as well. The member for Aston has only been here five minutes, and she's already asked twice as many questions about the budget as the shadow Treasurer has since the budget reply!

Today, we received very welcome news that 75,900 jobs were created in May, and the unemployment rate fell to 3.6 per cent. This is a remarkable achievement for the Australian economy and, most importantly, for the Australian people. More Australians are in work than ever before, the participation rate is higher than ever before and a greater share of women are in work than ever before. The number of Australians with a job is now more than 14 million for the very first time. The participation rate is a record high of 66.9 per cent. Women's participation is a record high of 62.7 per cent. The employment to population ratio is a record high of 64.5 per cent. These figures mean that more than 465,000 jobs were created in the first 12 months of the Albanese Labor government—also a record. This is the most jobs created under a new government ever. It's six times the number of jobs created in the first year of the Abbott or Howard governments.

We know our economy is slowing because of higher interest rates and weakness in the global economy, and this will impact the labour market as well in the coming months. We still expect unemployment to tick up over time. We see in the data today that New Zealand went into recession. Europe went into recession last week. There are pressures coming at us from right around the world. What makes these job numbers so remarkable is that, with everything coming at us from around the world, we still have an unemployment figure with a three in front of it. That means that we go into this period of significant global economic uncertainty from a position of relative strength. We also go into this period of global economic uncertainty with the right plan and the right budget, providing assistance to people experiencing cost-of-living pressures without adding to inflation, laying the foundations for future growth in our economy and the sort of spending restraint which is necessary to ensure we are forecasting a surplus this year for the first time in 15 years. These job numbers and the budget position show that we are demonstrating in the first 12 months under this Prime Minister and his government the type of responsible economic management which would be unrecognisable to those opposite, and that's why he doesn't ask me any questions. (Time expired)