Revealing Real Unemployment

By Philip O’Donoghue

ACOSS has released a major paper on hidden unemployment.

The federal government claims, based on the Australian Bureau of Statistics survey, that at 5.6% unemployment we are approaching full employment levels.

The new ACOSS definition of unemployment takes into account the "official" unemployed, the under-employed as well as excluded jobless people. At September 2002 the ABS figures showed 6.3% unemployment. Using the new definition they have developed, ACOSS puts the rate at 12.9%. The official figures wewre hiding 717,000 jobless and underemployed people.

(ACOSS Impact; summer 2004)