Almost 600,000 Australians lost their jobs as the virus shutdown took hold in April, the steepest monthly drop since records began more than 40 years ago, data showed Thursday.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said 100,000 people filed for unemployment benefits, while a further 500,000 left the workforce altogether.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison called the figures "terribly shocking", with the ABS reporting the underutilisation rate - which combines unemployment and underemployment - reached a record high of 19.9 percent in April.
The ABS said 2.7 million people - or one in five Australian workers - either left the workforce or had their work hours reduced as the country recorded an "unprecedented fall" in the workforce participation rate to 63.5 percent. The drop in the participation rate meant unemployment rose one percentage point to 6.1 percent, well short of forecasts of more than eight percent.
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