Immigration idiocy mid-oil and job shock

Friday 22 May 2026

It’s now official: Australia is running three simultaneous self-reinforcing shocks.

The first factor is the oil shock, which is hindering growth and is exacerbated by the RBA’s tighter-than-expected monetary policy.

The second shock is a crash in job creation at entry-level positions. Youth unemployment is increasing rapidly and is already in the lower bands of the lowflation period.

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About the author

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.