Rudd predicts job loss despite economy improving
Despite all signs pointing to an economic recovery, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has warned there will be further job losses.
Recently released economic data has proven to be quite mixed as both consumer and business confidence rose substantially in August, while retail sales fell 1.0 percent in July as the impact of the Federal Government’s cash handouts faded.
Rudd’s comments came before the ABS labour force data for August was released, which revealed unemployment crept towards six percent, levels not seen in over six years.
While Rudd acknowledged the fact that Australia is weathering the global economic recession better than most economies, he is still concerned about the “further loss of jobs in Australia because of the impact of that recession.”
People who read this, also liked:
Business confidence climbs to six-year high
Business investment surges as economy improves
The fact that so many of the G-20 (or is it G-21, who can keep count, really?) leaders are agreeing to this guardedly gloomy outlook while promising better days yet to come is distressing to say the least. Why, when this banking debacle has eclipsed the expense of the Iraq War and all the other wars of the 20th century – combined, why is there no outcry for an economic \’exit strategy\’. The masses clamor for a neat and tidy, to the day solution for something as unpredictable and chaotic as war, but are humbly accepting of blase, pie-in-the-sky treacle about the impossibility of forecasting something as supposedly dependable as 2+2=4? It\’s accounting, not a game of blindman\’s bluff or a murky mythological science like alchemy. Shouldn\’t we be able to predict it at least as well as we do the weather? Shouldn\’t we be worried that we can\’t? Or won\’t?