Unemployment at a 33 year low

Or so we are told.

Figures released for February show unemployment stands at a seasonally-adjusted 4 per cent. The Australian dollar has jumped higher in response to the stronger than expected employment figures. Almost 48,000 additional full-time positions were created in February, although part-time job numbers have dropped by 11,000.

In the ACT, the unemployment rate has remained the same at 2.4 per cent, in trend terms. The number of people looking for work is also unchanged.

In Queensland, the unemployment rate has risen by 0.21 per cent, in seasonally-adjusted terms, to 3.6 per cent. The number of people looking for work also rose over the month.

In New South Wales, the unemployment rate has fallen by 0.31 per cent to 4.2 per cent in seasonally-adjusted terms. The number of people looking for work rose slightly during the month.

A movie of rare integrity: "Bloody Sunday" (2002)

Last night I watched Bloody Sunday+.

“It’s unquestionably the most difficult, the most contentious, the most controversial single day of the whole Troubles,” says Bloody Sunday writer-director Paul Greengrass of January 30, 1972. “In a sense, it’s the day that propelled Northern Ireland into 30 years of conflict.” On that brisk winter’s afternoon in Derry, what began as a civil rights march plummeted into rioting and then lethal chaos when British paratroopers shot 27 unarmed Catholics, killing 14. Based on Don Mullan’s oral history, Eyewitness Bloody Sunday, Greengrass’s harrowing panorama of the massacre (screening at the New York Film Festival on October 2 and 3 before opening in theaters October 4) serves as a vital corrective to decades of blame-the-victim obfuscation by the British government.

Even toilet paper isn’t what it used to be…

Yes, it’s true; the “bargain pack” I bought a while ago — at least it was made in Australia — contained 12 rolls, and I swear they have vanished down the s-bend in the time one or two rolls would have taken in the 1950s! If we used rolls, of course; honestly, torn-up Daily Mirrors were more the go in Sutherland’s pan toilets, and they could double as flaming torches for dealing with the redbacks at night on candle-light visits to the outdoor dunny… They also gave you something to read while squatting in the unique environment of a non-sewered outhouse.

Ah the good old days, when everything was “nice”, as Sirdan’s friend B, a great Pauline Hanson fan, said on Sunday. “Yes. Bring back the dirt roads!” I said…