Extreme immigration smashes into wages

Monday 17 July 2023

The below table from Roy Morgan shows that the total growth in employment (+268,000) in the year to June failed to keep pace with the surge in the labour force (+715,000), mostly via record immigration.

Accordingly, the number of unemployed (+447,000) and underemployed (+189,000) people has surged:

This is a trend that will continue as migrant workers continue to flood into Australia at a record pace while the economy slows via the RBA’s ultra-aggressive monetary tightening.

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About the author

Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.