Early in the election campaign, on April 14, we learned that Australia’s unemployment rate had slipped below 4% in March, to 3.95% – the lowest rate in 48 years.
But the Coalition was denied the bragging rights that would flow from an unemployment rate beginning with “3” because of a Bureau of Statistics convention of quoting the rate to only one decimal place, which meant the rate was presented as “4.0%”, the same as the month before (when it was actually 4.04%).
