Fed: Contractors may not be included in unemployment data: Hockey

AAP General News (Australia)
04-30-2009
Fed: Contractors may not be included in unemployment data: Hockey

SYDNEY, April 30 AAP - As many as two million Australian contractors may not be included
in unemployment figures during the economic downturn, the opposition says.

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) report predicts unemployment in Australia will
rise from 5.7 per cent to 7.8 per cent next year.

However, shadow treasurer Joe Hockey fears the figure will not include a high number
of self-employed people.

"In this recession, quite clearly, there are going to be far more independent contractors
in small businesses than in the last recession," he said.

"It's roughly half a million to two million."

Some could be forgotten by the government because of the nature of their work, he said.

"I think there will be independent contractors and small business people, particularly
in the service sector, particularly in home-based businesses, that might not be properly
accounted for in the official data," he said.

"When you are rung up by the ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) and asked whether
you have got a job, you will say `I'm employed by my own company. We are probably getting
a proposal together ... I just haven't got any contracts at the moment'.

"I just hope those people are not forgotten by the government during the course of the downturn."

Mr Hockey said job sharing would play a greater role in Australian working life in
the near future.

"Job sharing is going to be a very real part of life and I hope the flexibility is
still in the industrial relations system that allows for that job sharing activity," he
said.

AAP bc/evt/apm

KEYWORD: JOBS HOCKEY

2009 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.