Australia shows disparity in economic growth rates.
In a rather extraordinary twist to the Australian economy, recent figures suggest that Gross Domestic Product is actually lower than employment growth.
GDP is growing at a rate of 2.7% by figures dated the first quarter of this year, that’s down from 2.8% for the same period last year. A figure that is below average. Yet employment growth is above average at 2.7% for the year quarter.
Employment growth is normally closely linked with GDP, with GDP normally one or two percent above the employment growth rate. Australia’s productivity is dictated by the workforce and normally the more people in employment, the more productivity you have. A slight delay means that productivity is usually higher than employment.
So how can productivity be lower than employment? Well there are a number of reasons for this and one can be found in Australian immigration patterns.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show that there has been a decline in overseas migration due to revised immigration policies. However these figures may not have been taken into account for employment growth, therefore it appears that employment growth is surpassing GDP growth when in reality it is not.
Updated figures from the ABS are due out in August but it is expected that these figures will show that the population of Australia is slowing down and fewer migrants are entering the country.
It remains to be seen if the figures take the decline in migration into account, but it seems odd that Australia’s productivity is growing at an above average rate whilst GDP is not. Somewhere something is not quite right.
Love Australia? Let us keep you informed...
- Join the Embrace Australia community today. Have your questions answered by our experts, start your own blog, get vital migration information and gain valuable insight from those who have already made the journey.
- Subscribe to our RSS Feed and have all our daily news and features delivered straight to your news reader.
- Join our mailing list -
