Australian Economy

AI rollout threatens to drive up Australian unemployment

Leith van Onselen
Advertisement

Last week’s April labour force report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reported that the nation’s unemployment rate rose to 4.5%, its highest level since November 2021 and well above the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) forecasts.

Unemployment vs RBA

Chart from Alex Joiner (IFM Investors)

Younger Australians were hit especially hard, with youth unemployment rising to over 11%:

Youth unemployment rate

The full text of this article is available to MacroBusiness subscribers

$1 for your first month, then:
Cancel at any time through our billing provider, Stripe
Twitter Share
About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.