Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has boasted about creating 650,000 jobs since coming to office, despite being responsible for record-high immigration during the same period.
Mr Albanese told the National Press Club on Thursday: “Around 650,000 jobs were created, since we came to government. More than any first-term government in Australian history.
“Last year is the first year since monthly records began where unemployment stayed below 4% – the first time ever. As a Labor Prime Minister, I can’t be prouder of anything greater than that achievement.”
But as economist Leith van Onselen from Macrobusiness points out, Mr Albanese inherited the current unemployment rate of 3.9% from the Coalition in 2022, and the jobs created have been accompanied by a net gain of 518,000 immigrants in the 2022/23 financial year, and more in the seven months since July.
At the same time, the working age population exploded, leading Mr van Onselen to conclude: “So basically, Anthony Albanese is celebrating the creation of jobs for migrants”.
And despite Mr Albanese’s upbeat claims, job ads have declined while the number of applicants per job has increased sharply due to the boom in mass immigration, suggesting unemployment is set to surge.
Mr Albanese also put a positive spin on “two consecutive quarters of real wages growth” – but neglected to mention that real wages are still at 2010 levels, due to high inflation and mass immigration flooding the labour market.
