Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Scarr. While the events of last year were unprecedented, they obviously required additional flexibility when it came to mutual obligation. The government worked with jobseekers. As you know, we lifted those mutual obligation requirements as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. But now we're seeing jobs returning to the economy—over 800,000 jobs have actually returned. About 93 per cent of the jobs lost during COVID-19 have returned to the economy. Hours worked have now recovered by 74.5 million hours since the peak of the pandemic in May. Of course, we've seen job ads reach higher levels than before the pandemic, with Seek, ANZ and the National Skills Commission continuing to show increases in recruitment activity. When you are of the belief that the best form of welfare is a job, everything you do needs to be focused on ensuring people become as job ready as possible.