Treasurer Jim Chalmers on jobs and work

Treasurer Jim Chalmers released his White Paper on employment this week.

Its aim is for everyone who wants a job to be able to get one without having to search for too long.

The paper says that a surprisingly large number of people are looking for work or for more hours of work, some three million, and that’s when unemployment is at a low 3.7% and we have labour shortages in multiple sectors.

Chalmers recognises that Australia’s labour market is “really resilient” and the government started in a position of “genuine strength” but the unemployment figures don’t paint the full picture:

There are other indications around under utilisation and other data that we talk about in the white paper, but also a lot of people confront barriers to working or to working more. And that’s why really a big feature, a key focus of the white paper is how do we make it easier for people to grab the opportunities of a changing economy, which is creating jobs.

In this podcast, Chalmers also canvasses inflation, migration, the cost of living pressures on households and concerns about China’s economy.