Building Boom Propels Big Leap In Job Market
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday December 13, 2002
Sparked by a boom in the construction industry, 60,000 new jobs were created last month.
But a surge in investor lending set the alarm bells ringing for property investors.
Despite the employment spike, a rise in the number of people looking for work nudged unemployment up to 6.1 per cent last month, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said. Total employment grew by 60,400, led by a 57,300 jump in full-time work.
The figure was about three times higher than expected and built on strong jobs growth in recent months.
While the figures do not spell out the number of new construction jobs, recent surveys, such as the Oliver Internet Job Index, show employment is booming in that industry but bordering on a recession in some white-collar professions, especially information technology.
Gary Caulfield, the owner of the scaffolding and housing fascia company Cruise Fascia, said his company could not find enough workers.
``We constantly advertise and we're constantly trying to hire people in the industry, but we just can't find anyone that's willing to be trained."
Separate figures released yesterday showed investment in residential construction was helping to boost employment.
Loans to investors for building dwellings jumped to $928 million in October, the bureau's lending finance figures showed.
The value of investor lending has been running at about three times its long-term average since the middle of this year, despite repeated warnings of rental market oversupply. Employment growth is stagnant or going backwards in most of the developed world, but the bureau's figures showed it picked up to about 2.5 per cent a year domestically.
The Treasurer, Peter Costello, said the employment figures underscored the economy's strength in the face of drought and international adversity.
Ian Watson, a senior researcher at the University of Sydney's labour market research centre, ACIRRT, said volatility in survey sample groups made the month-to-month figures unreliable. He said the longer-term trend was more important.
``Essentially, the unemployment rate has stalled. It's good that it came down to around 6 per cent but you also have to take into account that it's been hovering around 6 per cent for four years now."
The Deputy Opposition Leader, Jenny Macklin, said the Government was complacent about employment.
``Last week the Treasurer casually admitted that unemployment was unlikely to
get below 6 per cent this financial year, which is cold comfort for the 616,000
Australians currently looking for a job."
UP FOR LEASE Finance for investors building for rent or resale Original figures ($m) 2001 Oct 427 Nov 387 Dec 312 2002 Jan 415 Feb 292 Mar 328 Apr 384 May 717 Jun 878 Jul 1034 Aug 715 Sep 876 Oct 928 Source: ABS.
© 2002 Sydney Morning Herald