Victorian full-time jobs fall under Baillieu
Posted: Thursday, 19 January 2012 | By: Tim Pallas
The Baillieu Government needs to urgently deliver a jobs plan to resuscitate a stalled economy after the release of new job figures showing a massive fall in the number of full-time jobs in Victoria, the Shadow Minister for Employment Tim Pallas said today.
Mr Pallas said that in the last month, Victoria lost 2000 full-time jobs while 26,400 new full-time jobs were created across the rest of Australia.
“These figures are bad news for the Baillieu Government and bad news for people looking for full-time work.
“There are now 9000 less people employed than when Mr Baillieu took office.”
“In December, there were 2000 less full-time jobs in Victoria. This comes at a time when more people want to work more, with 10,700 Victorians identified as underemployed in the latest quarterly figures.
“Disturbingly, Victoria’s job participation rate dropped significantly last month, from 65.5 per cent to 65.1 per cent. This means more people are giving up looking for work because it’s become too hard to find a job.
“Also, Victorian youth unemployment is among the highest in Australia at 21.1 per cent – up from 14.6 per cent.”
Mr Pallas said today’s figures put more pressure on Mr Baillieu to deliver a jobs plan.
“Earlier this week, Mr Baillieu said the economy was his top priority. Why then is Mr Wells still the Treasurer? Why does he not have a plan to create jobs and attract investment?” he said.
“Nothing is more important to Victorians than a job, but without a plan to grow the economy more people will be out of work.
“And there is more bad news to come for job seekers, with leading economic indicators showing the number of job vacancies in Victoria drying up with a dramatic fall off in business confidence and private sector capital investment to support new jobs.
“Also big losses have been flagged for the finance and banking sector which will only lengthen Victoria’s dole queues.”
Mr Pallas said these figures were more evidence of the Baillieu Government’s lazy economic management and do-nothing approach to industry investment support and job creation.
“Under Labor, Victoria was the job creation capital of Australia. In 2010,100,000 new jobs were created and in 2009, Victoria created 92 per cent of all full time jobs in the country,” he said.
“How many Victorian workers will need to lose their jobs before Mr Baillieu starts to care?”