The huge blow to Australia’s employment industry from Covid-19 pandemic-driven lockdowns is”catastrophic”, Prime Minister Scott Morrison stated on Thursday after data showed the jobless rate jumped into some 19-year high.
“All these are our dark times, however, I will see that beam of light, and I am sure Australians can observe,” he told reporters in Canberra.
Official data out sooner revealed almost a quarter of a million people lost their jobs in May, sending the unemployment rate to 7.1 percent, the highest since October 2001.