Weekly Payroll Jobs and Wages in Australia estimates
- between 14 March and 18 April (the five weeks after Australia recorded its 100th confirmed COVID-19 case) total employee jobs decreased by 7.5%, while total wages paid by employers decreased by 8.2%.
- week-to-week changes, the decrease in the number of jobs in the week ending 18 April was 1.5%, which was larger than the 0.3% decrease in week ending 11 April 2020
The 7.5% decline equates to around 975,000 jobs lost. This is an enormous toll, and its the case all around the globe where tight restrictions have been put in place. One can see why there are calls for some relaxation of restrictions, especially in places where the outbreak appears to be showing signs of abating or being brought under some sort of control (increase in ICU capacity would be one such sign, for example).
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The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is utilising Tax Office data for this new high frequency series. The ABS is endeavouring to provide more timely data than usual during the crisis to help inform policy.
