Hourly employment slumps in NSW and Victoria, down 13.5% and 13.2% respectively, while Western Australia posts 1.7% rise
The economy added 12,900 workers and the participation rate edged 0.1 percentage points higher to 66.2%.
The drop in hours was the most since April 2020, during Covid’s first wave. CBA said the reduction in NSW was a record decline. “January is the middle of summer and usually only about 90,000 to 100,000 people in Australia are away from work sick for an entire week,” he said. “In January 2022 it was about 450,000 people [or] 3.4% of employed people.”
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