Mr Swan has unveiled economic forecasts for the May 10 federal budget a fortnight ahead of schedule, but he declined to confirm what measures would be taken to entice the long-term unemployed back into work.
"We're looking at a range of initiatives to lift workforce participation," he told Network Ten on Sunday.
"With an unemployment rate coming down to 4.5 per cent, we simply don't have a person to waste."
Treasury forecast a 4.5 per cent jobless rate by the end of 2012 when it released its mid-year economic and fiscal outlook in November 2010.
On Sunday, Mr Swan revealed more details about how Treasury expects the jobless rate to fall from its present level of 4.9 per cent.
"What I can say about the budget is that we will see the creation of an additional 500,000 jobs in the next couple of years with unemployment rate coming down to 4.5 per cent," he said.
"We're going to get more Australians into work and we're going to spread the opportunities of the boom."
Mr Swan acknowledged, however, there were parts of Australia, like Cairns in far north Queensland, where unemployment was still high.
"It is the case there are parts of the economy where unemployment levels are still unacceptably high," he said.
AAP
mycareer.com.au
No comments:
Post a Comment