The ABS said on March 12 that the country’s jobless rate was up 0.4 points from the previous month. This was another sign that Australia may be in its first recession in the past two decades.

More than a half of mineral exploration companies in Australia, which employ the largest percentage of the workforce, have planned to reduce staff within the next 12 months. In the first two months of this year, the financial sector already cut nearly 7,000 jobs and us going to cut more in the near future.

Australian Central Bank predicted that the country’s unemployment rate would increase dramatically next year, while its export turnover would fall by 20 percent in 2009 compared to the previous year.