The recession is technically over but for wages and jobs, the recovery is a long way away

It's a big bounce back, undeniably, but we're not out of the woods yet. The 3.3 per cent boost to Australia's economic growth from July to September is stronger than most anticipated, but keep in mind the base it's coming off: a 7 per cent fall in the prior three months, as COVID-19 health restrictions shut down large tracts of the economy, the biggest quarterly slump ever recorded by the ABS. After being smashed by lockdown, accommodation and hospitality recorded a 41 per cent increase in activity in the September quarter, despite Victorians, hunkered down by stage four restrictions, not being able to join the party. On the latest numbers, 7 per cent of Australians are unemployed — not counting the 1.5 million still on the Government's JobKeeper wages subsidy — and nearly 11 per cent are unable to get enough hours of work, down a little off the peak during the recession but still very high. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg's delayed Federal budget contained surprisingly little in direct spending measures to stimulate the economy, relying instead on incentives to encourage businesses to invest, and subsidies to encourage the hiring of unemployed workers aged 20 to 35.