Preliminary April Jobseeker numbers:

There were changes at the end of March to both JobKeeper and JobSeeker. Numbers were down about 9% nationally from the previous months and about that in the Cairns SA4. This isn’t a useful way to look at regional differences where I prefer a benchmark reference such as the pre-covid SALM labour force for SA2 regions:

Not on top of the changes which apparently included income tests. Approximately 22% of all JobSeekers had reported employment income in March. This employment income data is not available at regional level.

Think I will leave any further comment on SA2 regions until full DSS data is posted next week.

Note: data above is NewStart/JobSeeker + Youth Allowance (other).

H/T: Michael Klapdor

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