Economists believe these extra people in the workforce will also help boost the unemployment rate, as there will be more people looking for the same number of jobs.

Super Ratings managing director Jeff Bresnahan said yesterday median balanced superannuation investments which are the most common lost 13per cent in the just-finished financial year.

This was the largest fall since compulsory superannuation was introduced in 1992, the second consecutive annual loss after 2007-08's -6.4per cent, and just the third time annual investments have gone backwards.

These losses effectively meant ''no one has earned anything on their super since January 2006''.

The result was not pretty, but also not surprising.

It also could have been worse if the stockmarket had not begun to recover.

''Since the beginning of March, [superannuation investments] have picked up about 6 or 7per cent,'' he said.

''At one point they were down around 20per cent, so in essence, there has been a minor recovery. ... It could have been a lot uglier than it ended up.''

However, Mr Bresnahan pointed out superannuation investments had not fallen as far as the stockmarket, and said they were holding up in the longer term.

The Australian All Ordinaries suffered its biggest fall in 27years in the past financial year, and the fifth biggest on record, losing 26per cent.

''Since the inception of compulsory super the average annual return has been 6.7per cent. The average [inflation] over the same period has been 2.7[per cent]. So super funds have been quite consistent in their objective of [inflation] plus 3-3.5per cent, on a medium to long-term basis,'' he said.

More economic news in today's Canberra Times