Jobless data puts the heat on budget

Nor is it that the rate is the highest in 12 years, or that there are now more than 100,000 extra people looking for work than there were a year ago.

No, the most troubling news is the spike in the number of young people who cannot get jobs, even before the budget's punitive measures kick in to make them try even harder.

More than one in five teenagers looking for work are simply unable to find it.

''What we've had really since the financial crisis is virtually no net new hiring and, almost by definition, if employers are going to stop new hiring, the burden of that is going to fall on new entrants to the labour force who, overwhelmingly, are young people,'' is how economist Saul Eslake puts it.

To reinforce the point, Eslake says that, compared with the September quarter of 2008, when the global financial crisis began, employment of those less than 25 years of age has dropped by more than 6 per cent in absolute terms, while employment of people over 25 has increased by 10 per cent. The result brings about a dramatic increase in pressure on the federal government.

The immediate pressure point is the budget that failed to inject confidence because it was judged unfair, even by those who escaped the tougher measures, almost from the moment it was handed down.

Joe Hockey needs to break the Senate gridlock and do it fast or risk further tarnishing the Prime Minister's ''open for business'' mantra. Criticising business for not getting behind the budget won't cut it.

The numbers will also prompt stronger demands for labour market reform and add weight for the Business Council's call for a ''mindset change'' to boost competitiveness and innovation.

A few months ago, numbers such as these could have been attributed to the stewardship of the mob thrown out in September, but not any more.

To borrow a pre-election phrase from the Prime Minister, there are now no excuses.