Data warps jobs truth
REGARDING unemployment figures, it seems the devious forces that be are at it again, fudging figures attempting to instil a sense of confidence within the wider community, all the while citing rubbery figures as justification for their audacious claims.
Thursday’s story ( Drop in jobless rate, TB, June 21) really doesn’t inform anybody of anything of substance. Highly inflated figures ( Adani’s ridiculous claims about the number of jobs it will create) or seriously flawed methodology to warp reality ( the ABS’s unemployment figures) are nothing new to media reporting. However, what should be reported is the way the data is compiled.
The ABS’s figures on unemployment rates lump all workers in together regardless of whether they are employed fulltime, part- time or casual. In order for someone to be considered “employed” they only have to have worked for one hour the week the data is collected.
Therefore the figures do not represent an accurate picture of the reality of the situation, particularly when students and pensioners are not considered to be jobseekers even when they are actively seeking employment.
Commissioning reports of this nature also does nothing to alleviate the unemployment rate except for providing the author with an opportunity to make a few bucks for compiling some utterly useless information.
Unless various governments are going to start specifically targeting suburbs for intensive employment incentive programs, what good is this data?
The only way it ( the data) is likely to be used by any governments would be the Federal Government as it aspires to roll out the basics card to even more areas despite the overwhelming evidence that the system doesn’t work ( much like the ABS’s computer system at the last Census, or the new MYGov way of reporting job search efforts).
Perhaps the Townsville City Council could move a motion to inform the Federal Government that they don’t want the rollout of basics cards to occur in Townsville or its suburbs ( the Moree Plains Shire Council did).
Additionally, estimates are not facts and can be way off the mark. The article states that the DS economics estimate range for full employment in Townsville is between 5 and 6 per cent. Do DS Economics estimates calculate their figures in the same way as the ABS and if so, this estimate can be dismissed as rubbish.
A more accurate estimate would be up around the 20 per cent mark but as I said, estimates can be way off the mark. A far better study to commission would be for the percentage of politicians who don’t actually do anything. My estimate is that the figure there would be at least 90 per cent. CHRIS McCOOMB,
North Ward.