Australia’s unemployment rate fell to four per cent earlier this week and would ya look at him go: Prime Minister Scott Morrison has already made false claims about how good that is.
Morrison incorrectly claimed at a press conference on Thursday he was five years old the last time the unemployment rate fell that low ‘cos wooow his government is such a good economic manager.
“The unemployment rate at four per cent is the lowest rate that we’ve seen in almost 50 years. I was five years old when we last had an unemployment rate this low – and I think that says something,” he said.
But that is oh so untrue.
The last time it was at four per cent was actually in 2008, when Kevin Rudd was PM and Scotty was still very much an old man.
Morrison was born in 1968 so he was five in 1973.
Unemployment was at four per cent in both February and August 2008 and before that, in 1978.
In fact this February’s jobless rate was 4.042%, above the 4.016% in August 2008 and 3.981% in February 2008.
A spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s office has since acknowledged the error and said Morrison misspoke after a bunch of people including reporters and Labor politicians pointed it out.
This isn’t the lowest unemployment rate since Scott Morrison was five, it’s the lowest unemployment rate since the last Labor Government. Is there anything this guy doesn’t lie about? #auspol https://t.co/5Mtm7t4zRJ
— Jim Chalmers MP (@JEChalmers) March 17, 2022
Employment Minister Stuart Robert defended Mr Morrison’s statements at a press conference in Canberra and said he was “quite correct”.
“The last time it was four per cent was August 2008, February [2008] and [1974]. That’s why I chose my words carefully to say it is the equal lowest rate — so the prime minister is absolutely correct,” Robert said.
But um, yeah, Morrison did not say that, did he. He said it was the “last” time the unemployment had been that low.
It is a very low rate and signs are that job seekers are finding work. Employment increased fir the fourth month in a row with more than 77,000 people joining the workforce in February.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said it was only the third time in the history of the unemployment monthly survey, which began in 1974 when Morrison was six, the rate had been so low.
We’re happy for them but remember this figure doesn’t take into account people who have lost hours of work due to isolation or illness, which is back on the rise as the COVID-19 BA.2 subvariant spreads.
