Rise in the number of jobseekers raises unemployment rate to a 13-year high

The increasing number of jobseekers has pushed up the rate of unemployment to 6.3 percent in July, at its 13-year high since the start of the year. Despite the generation of 160,000 jobs, there are still a large number of people who are still not employed.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday that the number of employed people rose to 38,500 in July, three times of what was expected by the economists. Despite that, the number of unemployed remains at a 13-year high. The reason behind the surge is being attributed to the considerable rise in the number of people looking for jobs. According to The Guardian, statistical reports show that there has been a 0.3 percent growth in the number of jobseekers, pushing the rate to rise up to 65.1 percent.

Brendan O’Connor, the opposition spokesperson for employment, said that the rise of unemployment problem is very concerning. “We have not seen more than 800,000 people lining the unemployment queues for more than 20 years,” he said. “We have major concerns around all parts of Australia.” He also said that the figures are alarming and that it is time for the administration to do something about the surging rate of unemployment.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott defended his government by saying that whatever the government does, it is only to improve the employment scenario and increase growth in the country. He referred to his visit to Adelaide to further talks on shipbuilding, which he considers to be a very favourable ground for jobs as well as growth. He also spoke of his dialogues with China on free trade agreement and signing of a Memorandum of Understanding or MOU between the produce markets of the two nations.

According to the Commonwealth Bank senior economist John Peters, the creation of new jobs is not keeping up pace with the rate of population growth in the country.

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