Full time jobs are coming back

A Reserve Bank heavy, Philip Lowe, has a fresh way of looking at Australia’s job market.

“….it is important to remember,” he says,”that one of the least productive things a society can do is leave large numbers of people at home who actually want to work.”

That cue from Mr Lowe, who is the bank’s Assistant Governor (Economics),  gives us a clearer look at the latest job market figures.

Yes.  Unemployment rose by 10,700 last month. And  the nation’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose slightly to 5.3 per cent, from 5.2 per cent the previous month.

The Statistician’s labour force figures also show that 615,900 Australians were still out of work last month.

Mr Lowe was urging those who attended a seminar in Sydney, earlier this week, to remember that Australia must become more productive, if it is to keep a lid on inflation. That is, it must produce more.

So Mr Lowe would have been pleased, as he studied the bureau’s latest figures, to see that Australia’s male labour force under-utilisation rate is, once again, trending down.

That rate, for women, is also flattening, after rising sharply last year.

So what, really, is happening right now, in Australia’s job market?

Thousands of Australians were shifted to part time work, after the global economic crisis struck.

That helped them keep some income, at least.

However there are now some signs that move to part time work is being reversed, as Australia’s economy recovers.

In fact, the bureau reports 11,400 Australians actually found full time work in February.

That was offset, though, by a fall of 11,000 in part time employment.

A small, overall, improvement, perhaps.

This movement, though, is still positive.

So was that Mr Lowe smiling?

Surely not.  He’s an economist.