“Our recovery leads the world,” treasurer Josh Frydenberg told Australia on budget night last week. “We have overcome the biggest economic shock since the Great Depression.”
The government has repeatedly emphasised forecasts of the lowest unemployment rate since the end of the post-World War II economic boom, a time when “full employment” was the norm.
But a bigger story lies beneath the headlines. Our new report, titled Scarring Effects of the Pandemic Economy, shows Australia’s recovery has not been the rising tide that lifts all boats.
