The Australian job market has done better than its counterparts in Europe and the United States throughout the economic turmoil of the past few years, but at the start of 2012, things weren’t looking so bright.
Total employment in December fell by 293,000 and the country’s unemployment rate stood at 5.2 percent. Bloomberg News reported in January that 2011 was the worst year for the labor force in Australia since 1992. The Sydney Morning Herald reported on Jan. 29 that Australia was headed toward an unemployment rate of 6 percent in 2012. While that might seem low to people in many countries, including the U.S., it would be a nine-year high for the land down under.
The Herald reported that there is a gradual erosion of jobs in the retail and farming industries, while other employment sectors, such as manufacturing, are shedding jobs due to global economic factors, including a strong Australian dollar and a tightening of credit. Other top job losers in the second half of 2011 were real estate and other services. Australia’s housing market, which had been doing better than those in most other developed countries, has slumped recently.

