Latest news with #labourforce
Reuters
2 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Australia jobs unexpectedly dip in May but unemployment holds steady
SYDNEY, June 19 (Reuters) - Australian employment dipped in May after solid gains the previous month, data showed on Thursday, though full-time jobs jumped and the jobless rate held steady in a sign of continued resilience in the labour market. Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed net employment dipped 2,500 in May from April, when they rose a revised 87,600. That was below market forecasts for a 22,500 increase, though the series has been very volatile in recent months. The jobless rate held at 4.1%, where it has been for over a year now. The participation rate dipped slightly to 67.0%. Other details of the report were strong, with full-time jobs rising 38,700 in May and hours worked rebounding by a solid 1.3%, after a flat April. There was little market reaction as the report did not move the dial on policy easing expectations from the Reserve Bank of Australia. Swaps imply a 65% probability for a quarter-point rate cut in July, more or less the same as before. "The drop in jobs does not reflect a sudden reversal of the labour market's fortunes," said Kar Chong Low, an economist at Oxford Economics Australia "Instead, part of the fall reflects normalisation following exceptionally strong growth in April. Similarly, the rebound in hours worked, the tick down in underemployment, and the jump in full-time work show firms are still demanding workers' time." The RBA has already cut interest rates twice since February to 3.85% as inflation slowed to the target band of 2-3%. However, consumers have stayed stubbornly frugal and economic growth has remained subdued, with U.S. tariffs and geopolitical conflicts darkening the economic outlook. All of that argues for more policy easing from the RBA in the months ahead, with investors expecting a total easing of 70 basis points by the end of the year. In the meantime, the labour market has proved to be resilient. The unemployment rate remains low at 4.1% and job advertisements are stabilising above pre-COVID levels. Wages have been well-behaved, with growth in the private sector mostly subdued. The central bank is expecting the unemployment rate to peak just a little higher at 4.3% this cycle.
Telegraph
4 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
How Spain's worklessness crisis made it harder to retire
Spain's economy floundered in the years following the financial crash, as a growing debt crisis and the end of a construction bubble triggered widespread redundancies. Worklessness swept across the country, with unemployment soaring to 26.9pc by 2013 as staff were laid off and businesses closed. But unemployment has since fallen to 11.4pc. In large part, this has been thanks to a concerted effort to get older people into work. Britain now faces its own worklessness crisis. Unemployment has jumped to 4.6pc and more than one in five people of working age are classed as inactive, a designation that covers people who are not looking for work because they are retired, studying, too sick or for some other reason. Much of the coverage of this worklessness crisis has focused on the high levels of young people not in education, employment or training (Neets). Yet one area where Britain could learn a lot from Spain is the country's efforts to get older workers back into the labour force. An estimated 280,000 people aged 50 to 64 stopped working in the UK between March 2020 and January 2023, with many too ill or taking early retirement. The economic activity rate for those aged 55 to 59 remains lower now than it was before 2020, at 75.4pc in the first quarter of 2024 compared with 77.8pc in the last quarter of 2019. The picture is very different in Spain, where the participation rate for 55 to 59-year-olds stood at 78pc at the start of 2024. Not only is it higher, but it is rising. The data contrasts with the stereotype of Spaniards being lazy, enjoying siestas and taking early retirement by the beach. In fact, more older Spaniards are in work than Britons and they are retiring later. This has helped to boost the Spanish economy, with GDP climbing by 3.2pc in 2024 and growth of 2.6pc is expected this year – figures that remain a distant dream for Britain. How has Spain done it? And could it work here? Madrid has taken a carrot-and-stick approach to getting more over-55s in the workforce. The carrot is more generous unemployment benefits. Since 2019, workers aged 52 and over have been eligible for unlimited unemployment assistance, which they keep receiving for the first six months they are back in work. Allowing benefits to overlap with earnings is meant to encourage people to seek employment, rather than just sitting on the dole. The stick is reforms to pensions that have made it more difficult to retire. 'Over the past decades, Spain has undertaken several pension reforms that are aimed at extending working life,' says Nina Ruer, a research analyst at think tank Bruegel. 'The statutory retirement age has been raised, the early retirement eligibility has been tightened and recently they linked the pension benefits to the years of [tax] contribution. All of this creates incentives for workers to stay in the workforce.' Spanish workers retire later in life than British employees in similar roles, according to a recent paper by the IMF. Professionals in the Mediterranean country have an average retirement age of 64, compared to just above 62 in the UK. The current retirement age in Spain stands at 66 years and eight months and is gradually being raised so that it reaches 67 by 2027. Spain's success in getting more older people into work begs the question: could the UK do the same? Successive British governments have tried to get more older people into work. Jeremy Hunt, the then-chancellor, said in 2023 that life for over-50s 'doesn't just have to be about going to the golf course'. However, policies to date have done little to shift the dial on participation rates. A significant driver of the UK's drop in the participation rate for older workers since the pandemic and the earlier age of average retirement is high levels of sickness and disability among over-55s. By comparison, Spain's population has lower rates of illness. It suggests that adopting similar reforms here may not yield exactly the same results. However, that's not to say that they couldn't help. Still, raising the pension age would be extremely controversial. Hunt shelved plans to raise it to 68 when he was chancellor, fearing an outcry. The state pension age is currently 66 and will rise to 67 between 2026 and 2028. Yet as Britain and most other Western countries grapple with an ageing population, governments may be left with no choice but to make it more difficult for older workers to retire early. '[Spain] is a country that has been experiencing ageing a bit longer than other European countries ... so I think they took steps to prepare for that and to increase this labour force participation rate,' Ruer says. Keeping older workers in the labour force has been a boon as more experienced employees are often more productive and drive business growth. Ruer adds: 'This really does help to grow the economy just by the fact that they stay in the labour market.'
South China Morning Post
4 days ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Most Pacific island women don't work. The World Bank wants to change that
Less than half of working-age women are employed across Pacific island nations due to outdated laws and other barriers, the World Bank said in a new report on Tuesday. Advertisement The World Bank economic update for the Pacific, which said closing the gender gap could boost economic growth, also forecast regional growth slowing to 2.6 per cent this year, down from 5.5 per cent in 2023. With 57 per cent or around 500,000 women not in work across the Pacific, the report said boosting female participation to the same level as men could lift the region's gross domestic product by 22 per cent by increasing household incomes and supporting private sector growth. In Fiji , the biggest Pacific island economy, the boost to GDP could be 30 per cent, it said. A stallholder displays her wares to tourists at a market on Rarotonga in the Pacific nation of the Cook Islands earlier this month. Photo: AFP The gender gap in the labour market exists despite women attaining similar education levels as men and could be partly attributed to social norms, the report said. Advertisement Six countries did not have paid parental leave, often forcing women to leave the labour force when they started families, it said.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
India's unemployment rate rises to 5.6% in May as farm jobs decline post-harvest
By Manoj Kumar NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India's unemployment rate rose to 5.6% in May from 5.1% in April, partly due to a drop in farm activity after the end of the harvest season, the statistics ministry said on Monday. This was the second monthly release of India's labour force data covering both urban and rural areas. Previously, the government published employment data on a quarterly basis for urban regions and annually for both urban and rural areas. Asia's third largest economy, which expanded 7.4% year-on-year in the January-March quarter, is expected to grow 6.5% in the current fiscal year beginning April - broadly in line with the previous year's pace. The female unemployment rate stood slightly higher at 5.8% in May, compared to 5.6% for males, the data showed. Unemployment rate among urban youth aged 15 to 29 years rose to 17.9% in May from 17.2% in April, while in rural areas, the youth jobless rate increased to 13.7% from 12.3% over the same period. In rural regions, employment shifted away from agriculture to manufacturing and services as the share of workers in the farm sector fell to 43.5% in May from 45.9% in April, largely due to a post-harvest decline in agricultural activity. The decline in farm activity also impacted work opportunities for women in rural areas, with the labour force participation rate among women falling to 27.8% in May from 28.8% in April, the data showed. India's manufacturing growth slowed to a three-month low in May as demand softened amid price pressures and geopolitical tensions, a survey showed earlier this month. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Reuters
5 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
India's unemployment rate rises to 5.6% in May as farm jobs decline post-harvest
NEW DELHI, June 16 (Reuters) - India's unemployment rate rose to 5.6% in May from 5.1% in April, partly due to a drop in farm activity after the end of the harvest season, the statistics ministry said on Monday. This was the second monthly release of India's labour force data covering both urban and rural areas. Previously, the government published employment data on a quarterly basis for urban regions and annually for both urban and rural areas. Asia's third largest economy, which expanded 7.4% year-on-year in the January-March quarter, is expected to grow 6.5% in the current fiscal year beginning April - broadly in line with the previous year's pace. The female unemployment rate stood slightly higher at 5.8% in May, compared to 5.6% for males, the data showed. Unemployment rate among urban youth aged 15 to 29 years rose to 17.9% in May from 17.2% in April, while in rural areas, the youth jobless rate increased to 13.7% from 12.3% over the same period. In rural regions, employment shifted away from agriculture to manufacturing and services as the share of workers in the farm sector fell to 43.5% in May from 45.9% in April, largely due to a post-harvest decline in agricultural activity. The decline in farm activity also impacted work opportunities for women in rural areas, with the labour force participation rate among women falling to 27.8% in May from 28.8% in April, the data showed. India's manufacturing growth slowed to a three-month low in May as demand softened amid price pressures and geopolitical tensions, a survey showed earlier this month.
