These days when I wake I am tempted not to immediately look at the bedside clock to check the time but instead to inspect the flashing date on its digital face to confirm which year I’m starting the day in.
And it’s because of little snippets of fact like these…...
In January 2020 the global COVID-19 pandemic quietly entered Australia and the state of New South Wales. However it wasn’t until February 2020 that it became obvious that the virus had firmly established itself here.
That month NSW had an unemployment rate of 4.9% (in original terms) representing est. 215,100 people with no paid employment – an increase of 10,100 on January’s unemployment numbers.
By July 2020 the unemployment rate had risen to 7.1% when the number of individuals without a job had grown to 222,900. By which time 3,567 NSW residents had contracted COVID-19 and 51 of those people had died.
In June 2021 the highly infectious Delta variant of COVID-19 was confirmed as having entered Australia and New South Wales.
That month NSW had an unemployment rate of 5.0% representing est. 218,900 people without paid employment and, the state cumulative COVID-19 case total had reached 5,637 and 56 people had died of the infection.
So New South Wales ended the month which saw the beginning of the Delta Variant Outbreak with a higher unemployment rate and more unemployed people than it had at the end of the month when the original COVID-19 outbreak began to make itself felt.
As yet there is no ABS Labour Force data compiled for July 2021, but sadly the growing infection numbers are available on a daily basis - as of 18 July 2021 the NSW total of cumulative COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began was 6,753 people infected and 60 of that number dead from this viral disease.
I keep looking for the healthy communities and strong economies Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been boasting about since February 2021. Because, right this minute, it feels as though Australia has been catapulted back to the start of this long climb out of a pandemic and, the new 16 June 2021 starting point began with a national cumulative total of 30,291 COVID-19 cases and 910 deaths.
Nationally the country may have ended June 2021 with a unemployment rate 0.7% lower (in original terms) than the rate in February 2020, but it is such a meagre step forward - given the east coast of mainland Australia is currently fighting a widening Delta variant viral outbreak which threatens to increase the number of people who are out of work for months to come.
