Job Security Fades in Canberra and Australia

Friday May 29, 2009

Over 611,000 jobs have been axed in Australia's private-sector alone since the global financial crisis began in September last year, with unemployment rising from 8.5 to 8.9 per cent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Regardless of what industry you're from, the recession seems to be affecting each one.

Jobs losses in Canberra and the rest of Australia have come from a whole range of sectors including the finance industry with already over 7000 job losses, the construction industry with an anticipated 100,000 job loss coming up, as well as 23,000 job losses in the carbon trading industry under the Federal Government's Emissions Trading Scheme, and many other job losses in industries such as education and the media.

With job loss occurring at such a high rate, Tim Gooden, Geelong and region Trades and Labour Council secretary, says that since 1991 a whole generation of workers who have only known economic growth, are and will be finding out what it means to lose a job and not find another.

Suddenly the notion of 'job security' has flown out the window, a term that was becoming the norm during most of 2008 with a solid increase on staff retention from the previous year at 12.7 per cent to 13.6 per cent, as the Australian Institute of Management 2008 National Salary Survey showed.

While job loss continues to create a low morale in Australia, the federal budget's Nation Building Infrastructure will invest $22billion to support around 15,000 jobs annually and potentially 18,000 by 2011-12. The government will also support 25,000 jobs with the National Broadband Network project.

"While unemployment will rise in Australia in the future, it does mean that together we can make a difference by supporting jobs and apprenticeships today while building the infrastructure we need for tomorrow," Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said at a community forum in early May.

Additionally, Mr Rudd said that in accordance with Treasury advice in the 2009-10 Budget, that the federal government's stimulus package, which has resulted so far in the nation spending almost $90billion, has helped to cut the unemployment rate from reaching a level as high as 10 per cent.

"This advice is the final nail in the coffin for those who argue that governments should do nothing to support jobs during a global recession," he told the Australian media.

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