The surge in Omicron cases across Australia will not hinder Australia’s economic recovery after last year’s COVID-19 regulation, according to Australia’s Federal Finance Minister.
This is because new data released by the Australian Taxation Office reveals that about 500,000 jobs have been created nationwide since September.
Australia has experienced an employment boom in recent months, making it difficult for SMEs across the country to “recover” early on, Josh Frydenberg said.
“We are starting to see these jobs come back, and it looks very promising for the Australian economy,” says Frydenberg. Told Sky News on Monday.
“We’ve seen more and more hospitality workers come back to construction. We know that our mining and agricultural sectors are looking for more workers … And in the agricultural sector, we are trying to attract more workers. “
In addition, tax office figures show that the unemployment rate has fallen to 4.6%, the lowest in about 13 years. On the other hand, job advertisements are at the highest level in 13 years, with more than 250,000 jobs.
Data on the period after the blockade caused by the delta variants of New South Wales, Victoria, and ACT were lifted show that more than 180,000 people are currently working compared to the start of the pandemic. Estimated.
However, Frydenberg believed that the country was not “still out of this pandemic” and “there was no room for complacency.”
“We need to contain the recovery, which is focused on investing in skills and infrastructure and providing more tax exemptions,” he said.
However, Philip Lowe, Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia Said The outbreak of Omicron, which has blocked Australia’s largest city for months, is “a downside risk and it’s hard to know how things will evolve from here.”
“But we hope that the economy will maintain its positive momentum during the summer, supported by the openness of the economy,” he added.
Meanwhile, opposition leader Anthony Albanese said the recovery in job numbers was the result of an economic closure due to the government’s incompetence to contain the virus.
Albanese believed that the new data did not give a complete picture of employment.
“One of the things we see in work numbers is the fact that 2 million Australians are unemployed or want more time,” he told reporters in Newcastle. rice field.
“They want full-time full-time employees. One of the precarious jobs we see in Australia is more casual jobs, fewer full-time employees, and reduced people safety.”
Frydenberg also said the government would adopt a “balanced, considered approach” to migrants after economists sought a more aggressive approach to migrants to fill post-pandemic jobs. rice field.
“Overall pandemics last year and the year before, population growth was (at that time) … the lowest level in more than a century,” said the accountant.
“This will be one of the more permanent impacts of COVID-19 on migration.”
Skilled workers, visa holders and international students have been able to return to Australia from mid-December without the need for a travel exemption.
Despite the fact that 77% of the population is completely vaccinated, the number of cases of infection in the country has skyrocketed following the relaxation of the blockade due to the spread of the Omicron subspecies.
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Nina Nguyen is a Sydney-based Vietnamese reporter with a focus on Australian news. Contact her at [email protected]