CANBERRA, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government is considering ways to deliver tax cuts for middle-income earners after official figures revealed a dramatic drop in the employment rate.
According to data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Thursday, total employment fell by 19,000 in October.
It represents the biggest fall in jobs in a single month since August 2016, according to The Sydney Morning Herald on Friday. And it comes five months after the governing Liberal National Party Coalition was re-elected on the back of a promise to create 1.25 million new jobs over the next five years.
As a result of the fall, which included 10,300 full-time and 8,700 part-time jobs, the unemployment rate has risen to 5.3 percent.
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has previously declared that unemployment must be brought down to 4.5 percent to stimulate wage growth.
Data released by the ABS on Wednesday revealed that wages grew by 2.2 percent in the 12 months to September 2019.
More than 720,000 Australians are now actively looking for work.
Responding to the ABS data on Sky News on Thursday night, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg declared that the government is looking for opportunities to reduce taxes.
Frydenberg is due to deliver a mid-year budget update in December, which will include downgrades in unemployment and wage growth forecasts.
Despite the downgraded projections, the government remains committed to delivering the first budget surplus in over a decade in financial year 2019-20.
