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Vital Signs: Australia's 5% jobless rate is not full employment; pushing up interest rates would be wrong

  • Written by Richard Holden, Professor of Economics and PLuS Alliance Fellow, UNSW
Vital Signs: Australia's 5% jobless rate is not full employment; pushing up interest rates would be wrongAustralia's unemployment rate is at what would once been regarded as full employment. But that doesn't mean it can't fall further.Shutterstock

According to ABS figures released last week, the unemployment rate in Australia has fallen to 5%. This isn’t as low as the 3.7% level in the United States, but by historical standards it is low for us.

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