Fed: Howard pleased with latest job figures

AAP General News (Australia)
08-10-2000
Fed: Howard pleased with latest job figures

MELBOURNE, Aug 10 AAP - The latest job figures released today were terrific news, Prime
Minister John Howard said today.

Unemployment plummeted to a new decade-low of 6.3 per cent in July, with more than
75,000 new jobs created in just one month.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show the jobless rate is now at its lowest
level since April 1990, and is on the verge of beating the 20-year low of 5.9 per cent
set in late 1989.

Mr Howard said his government's policies had driven down unemployment and would continue
to do so.

"Everybody should feel very pleased that we've got 809,000 more Australians in work
in the last four and a half years," he told reporters in Melbourne.

"This is terrifically good news.

"It's good for families, it's what economic management is all about - getting more
Australians into work and making Australians more optimistic about their job prospects."

AAP jd/jlw/mk

KEYWORD: JOBS HOWARD

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