The early impact on university employment is now apparent, up to a point

Those speedy stats staffers at the Department of Education, Skills and Employment have provided March 2020 and 2021 FTE numbers.

Full-time employment, for the first time in reported data here (since 2012) was down 7 per cent on 2020 to 92 000 . Fractional FT jobs dropped by 6 per cent to 16 800.  As for casuals, there were 15 per cent fewer FTE positions – which is undoubtedly 100 per cent accurate but 100 per cent useless, at least for those interested in how many actual individuals went.

Professional staff took the hardest hit. FT and fractional FT numbers were down by 8 per cent to 61 900. Academic employment was down less by 4 per cent, except for Level B positions, which were 6 per cent lower.

But researchers were almost exempt with FTE jobs down by under 2 per cent, compared to teaching and research (- 5.7 per cent) and teaching only (- 6.1 per cent).