Sunday, July 01, 2007

If you can have "unemployment", can you have "overployment"?


There are now more job vacancies in the ACT than there are people looking for work.


The latest estimate from the Bureau of Statistics suggests that in May 7,000 jobs were vacant in the ACT, but only 5,606 people unemployed. It makes the ACT the tightest labor market in Australia.

Nationwide there was 1 vacancy for every 3 job seekers, the tightest jobs market since the survey began three decades ago...

Western Australia had the next tightest jobs market with 35,485 job seekers chasing 27,000 jobs.

The extreme tightness of the ACT jobs market revealed in yesterday’s figures might explain why for the last year employment in the ACT has been growing at half the national rate. Many of the right workers to fill the jobs are be unavailable.

In the last year the number of Australians employed nationwide soared by 307,000. Employment in the ACT climbed by just 3.000.

Other figures released by the Bureau yesterday suggest that employment amongst aboriginals is increasing. 50.4 per cent of adult Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders had jobs in 2006, up from 47.6 per cent in 2005.

By contrast across the nation as a whole 61 per cent of adults had jobs.

Employment of indigenous Australians was better in the cities than in remote areas, but still well below well below the Australian average.

The indigenous employment rate reported by the Bureau was 14.3 per cent in 2006. However the Bureau cautions that the figure may have little meaning, as in remote parts of Australia there is little work and so little incentive to look for work and identify as unemployed.