Zaneta Mascarenhas (Swan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. What do today's jobs figures mean for the Albanese Labor government's economic strategy? What other approaches have been rejected?

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

Thank you to the wonderful member for Swan for her question about today's labour force data.

On this side of the House we are under no illusions about the pressures that our people are under and that our economy is under. But we did get more welcome news today about the jobs market, after yesterday's wages data showed the second consecutive quarter of real wages growth—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Treasurer will pause. The member for Hume and the member for Deakin will cease interjecting. The Treasurer will be heard in silence, just as the question was heard in silence.

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

Fifty-five thousand new jobs were created in October, which means that 620,000 new jobs have been created under this Albanese Labor government. More jobs have been created under this government than under any other first-term government in history, and we're only halfway through our term. The unemployment rate is 3.7 per cent, and the participation rate is at a record high of 67 per cent.

Since these monthly records were first kept in 1978, the unemployment rate has only had a three in front of it 20 times. Seventeen of those 20 times have been under the Albanese Labor government. So it's 620,000 new jobs, record participation and the fastest quarterly wages growth in the 26 year history of the wages data. Our record-setting labour market is even more remarkable in a world of global uncertainty, volatility and conflict.

We welcome these outcomes today and we welcome this strength in our labour market, because a secure job with decent pay is central to our efforts to help people with the cost of living. Australians are doing it tough, but our economic plan is helping to take some of the sting out of these cost-of-living pressures and take the edge off inflation. We have strong jobs growth, two quarters of real wages growth, $23 billion of cost-of-living assistance rolling out, the first surplus in 15 years, and key investments in housing, skills and energy. The Bureau of Statistics says that our efforts have taken half a point off inflation in the most recent data. Fitch Ratings, the RBA governor and the IMF all say that our efforts and our economic plan are helping, not hampering, this important fight against inflation.

Those opposite want higher inflation, they want lower wages and they want more debt. We know this because they voted against cost-of-living help. We know this because they don't support our efforts to get wages moving again in our economy. They left us deficits and debt as far as the eye could see. That's because their nasty negativity comes with a hefty price tag. On this side of the House we are cleaning up the mess that they left behind. We are working for Australia, and more Australians are working as a consequence.