THE rise in unemployment to 6.5 per cent, although relatively small, was ‘a worrying shift in the wrong direction’, the national director of Catholic Welfare Australia (CWA) Toby O’Connor said.
The rise from 6.3 per cent was announced on July 11.
‘Similarly,’ Mr O’Connor said, ‘the shift to more casual work, with the loss of 68,000 fulltime jobs and an increase of 80,000 part-time jobs in June, reveals a labour market unable to cater for the basic needs of many Australians.
‘CWA remains concerned that the official unemployment rate does not reflect the true extent of the unemployment crisis.’
‘Not enough is being done to create decent jobs and this is having a disastrous impact in the lives of individuals, families and often entire communities.’
‘The fact that almost 380,000 job seekers are long-term unemployed is perhaps the clearest indication of the suffering that results from an inequitable national labour market.’
Mr O’Connor said that years ago Pope John Paul spoke on the importance of work and the need to address the social evil of unemployment.
