Point one of a per cent. The number landed with a thud at 11.30 this morning and sent Coalition media advisers scurrying for adjectives to describe the government’s economic failures.
The jump in the nation’s unemployment rate to 5.2% is not good news. That’s 27,000 fewer people in full-time work, wiping out the gains from May.
But there’s other figures worth considering. Like the unemployment rates in other nations:
- Germany: 5.6%
- New Zealand: 6.7%
- Canada: 7.2%
- Sweden: 7.8%
- United Kingdom: 8.1%
- United States: 8.2%
- France: 10.1%
- Portugal: 15.2%
- Greece: 21.9%
- Spain: 24.6%
- South Africa: 25.2%
Let us debate the health of our economy. But let’s do it with some perspective.
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