Today our research centre – Centre of Full Employment and Equity – which is known as CofFEE, released the second version of our – Employment Vulnerability Index – which is an indicator that identifies the localities (medium-sized areas) in Australia that are most vulnerable to job losses when economic activity declines. The Australian labour market has not recovered the ground it lost in the downturn associated with the Global Financial Crisis. After showing signs of recovery as a result of the fiscal stimulus in 2009-10, the fiscal austerity that the Federal government imposed as it obsessively pursued a budget surplus has caused us to lose all the gains that were made. The Government failed in its quest because it overestimated the strength of private spending (which is still very flat) and its deficit was too low anyway when it started its austerity push. The new Federal government is finding out that all its tough talk before the September election about delivering bigger surpluses than its predecessors is just hot air and the slowing economy is pushing the deficit higher not lower. In this environment, the labour market is precariously balanced and likely to continue to deteriorate. The EVI provides a guide to where the on-going job losses are likely to be across the urban and regional space.