Monday, March 26, 2012

Technical note: The employment-to-population ratio is sliding




Remember those headlines in January about 2011 being the worst year for jobs growth in two decades? (I wrote some of them.)

Since then all manner of people have said - ah yes, but population growth was low, so looking at the employment-to-population ratio, the growth wasn't that bad.

The ABS appeared to lend weight to that view in a paper published in February.

But the paper never actually made that claim.

An FOI seach (for which the ABS generously did not charge) has unearthed a graph used in the genesis of the ABS paper but not published in the paper.

It shows that on an employment-to-population ratio basis, 2011 was the second-worst year for job creation in two decades.



Not enough to invalidate the headlines.

2011 was a rotten year however you look at it.



Related Posts

. Bleak Christmas? For job seekers it was the worst in 20 years

. January: Jobs. Things aren't good, yet

. February. Jobs flat as a tack with unemployment set to rise