Recent Unemployment rates for both Australia and the UK have recently been released, with some examples shown below:
- 7.9 % England - June 2009
- 5.71% Australia - July 2009
At first sight this shows that the employment situation in Australia should be better than it is in the UK.
But, we should look a bit deeper… into your actual work locations…
Let’s assume you are considering moving from the South East of England to South Australia, and so we must consider the Unemployment Rates that are relevant to those locations…
- 5.9 % Unemployment rate South East England - June 2009
- 6.45%Unemployment rate South Australia - July 2009
From that information, it would appear that you may be going from the frying pan to the fire…
However, moving from the West Midlands to Canberra, Australian Capital Territory ?
- 10.6% Unemployment rate West Midlands - June 2009
- 2.61% Unemployment rate Australian Capital Territory - July 2009
No wonder that the people living in the ACT say that unemployment is no problem..
Although the above information may give you something to think about, it is also worth looking even deeper into the situation. Australia is a big country and very varied.
The employment rates in Queensland for example, can vary dramatically depending on which region of the State that you are in.
For example:
- Redlands in SE QLD has recorded an Increase of 9% employment in the last 2 years.
- Sunshine Coast has recorded a Decrease of 7% employment in the same period.
- Note these two example are employed persons, not Unemployed.
More Unemployment Rates Information:
UK Unemployment Rates:
Australian Unemployment Rates:
World Comparison of Unemployment Rates
A graph showing Unemployment rates for Australia, Euro area, United States and Japan:
Related posts:
Another thing to consider is that the Australian government changed the laws a few years ago so that students, people on a disabilty pension, and people unemployed but not receiving unemployment benefits would not be counted as unemployed.
Also people only working say 3 hours a week still count as being employed. A lot of people working actually don’t have enough work.
So the actually figure is probably a lot higher than the official one in Australia.
The hours thing is actually 1 hour now, in both Australia, the UK and most other countries.
Both countries will also have numbers of people that are classed as “underemployed”.
In both Australia and the UK, the official unemployed figures include more than just those that are receiving unemployment benefits.
For example:
Australia:
In 2007, there were 478,300 unemployed people of which 321,800 were receiving labour market payments. (2007 used as I cannot find later figures for those receiving labour market payments yet)
UK:
In Aug 2009 there were 2.47 million unemployed people of which 1.63 million were receiving labour market payments.
Both countries have a very similar percentage of total unemployed actually claiming benefits, of about 66%-67%
Here’s a supplementary article for those who want to know more about recent updates regarding the economy:
http://freelancesupermarket.com/news/2010/2/18/fear-that-out-of-work-freelancers-not-receiving-support.aspx
Fear that out of work freelancers not receiving support
Yesterday’s unemployment figures from the Office of National Statistics showed a slight drop of 3,000 in the amount of people out of work.
This brings the total to 2.46 million. There was however a rise of 23,000 people claiming benefits over the last quarter.
the unemployment rate today is a bit higher because of the recession but hopefully the economy would recover soon.