Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Fifield for that pertinent question. I would indeed be happy to comment upon today’s release by the ABS of the July labour force figures. I am pleased to report that, in the month of July, more than 50,000 new jobs were created in Australia. Full-time employment rose by 27,100 jobs and part-time employment rose by 23,600. Most spectacularly of all, the unemployment rate in this country fell to 4.8 per cent—its lowest level since 1976; a 30-year low in unemployment. We have now had 35 consecutive months of unemployment below six per cent, which of course would have been unimaginable in the early 1990s when Labor presided over 11 per cent unemployment rates. Unemployment fell despite the seasonally adjusted participation rate actually increasing to its highest level on record—65 per cent. Of course, it is always interesting to compare our performance on unemployment with the performance of other developed countries, particularly in Western Europe.