Australia jobless rate surges to 19-year high of 7.1%

[SYDNEY] Australia's unemployment rate jumped to the highest in about two decades in May as nearly a quarter of a million people lost their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic-driven shutdowns.

Employment in May plunged a further 127,000 after a record slump of about 600,000 in April, figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Thursday showed.

The unemployment rate shot up to 7.1 per cent, the highest since October 2001, from an upwardly revised 6.4 per cent in April and broadly in line with economists' expectations in a Reuters poll.

The participation rate dropped to 62.9 per cent from 63.6 per cent in April as fewer people went looking for work thanks to the government's wage subsidy scheme which allowed businesses to keep staff on their payrolls.

That meant fewer people than expected were counted among the unemployed. The jobless rate would have been even higher at 9.6 per cent had people not stopped looking for work, the ABS said.

The figures highlight the economic damage wrought by the pandemic as mobility restrictions forced business to down shutters since late March.

GET BT IN YOUR INBOX DAILY

Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign UpVIEW ALL

Australia is facing its first recession in nearly three decades with the country's central bank predicting the jobless rate to hit 10 per cent by June and stay elevated through 2021.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has gone all-in by cutting rates to a record low of 0.25 per cent, flooding the financial system with cash and even buying government bonds to lower borrowing rates for business.

REUTERS