Unemployment rate falls to lowest level in 30 years
Australia’s official jobless rate has fallen, with figures released for January showing unemployment stands at a seasonally-adjusted 4.5 per cent.
Federal Treasurer Peter Costello says he believes the unemployment rate can be kept at its current low level.
“All Australians will welcome the fact that unemployment has fallen again to 4.5 per cent - the lowest unemployment rate Australia has had in more than 30 years,” he said.
Mr Costello argues it is a sign that the WorkChoices legislation is helping create jobs.
“We’ve now seen unemployment below 5 per cent for nine months,” he said.
“We have seen in the last year 300,000 new jobs created in our country and we’ve seen over the last decade two million new jobs created in our country.”
Mr Costello says he wants to see how low unemployment can go.
He says it challenges the traditional view that full employment is around 5 per cent.
“We’ve now proven that actually full employment can mean something lower than 5 per cent,” he said.
“We haven’t been where we are now for 31 years - let’s test it, let’s see if we can go lower.”