The odds of job seekers finding entry-level work are so low that “even the most determined will be left behind”, according to new research from Anglicare Australia. Source: SBS News.
The anti-poverty organisation’s latest annual Jobs Availability Snapshot, released on Thursday, compared the number of people receiving JobSeeker payments with the number of positions advertised in August this year that require little formal education or experience.
It found that for every entry-level vacancy, there were 39 job seekers – an increase on last year’s figure of 35.
Twenty-five of those 39 people are considered to have barriers to work, meaning they have been receiving JobSeeker payments for a least a year.
“That’s the worst we’ve seen – and this is our 10th year of this snapshot,” Anglicare Australia executive director Kasy Chambers said.
“If you are one of those people who’ve been on JobSeeker for three years, you’ve only got partial ability to work, or you haven’t got English as your first language and you’re competing with 38 other job seekers who have, you’re going to find it difficult.”
Given that anyone can apply for entry-level jobs and more people were taking on extra work due to the cost of living, there was likely “greater competition than even we are measuring”, she added.
Ms Chambers said one of the reasons the situation was getting worse was because the “list of people who are long-term unemployed is getting bigger, and those who are long-term unemployed are staying unemployed for longer”.
Almost one in four JobSeeker recipients have been getting the payment for five or more years, compared to just one in 10 a decade ago.
The overall number of job advertisements has also been steadily declining over the past three years, according to figures from the Internet Vacancy Index, with the sharpest drop (37 per cent) among entry-level roles.
Ms Chambers said as automation and artificial intelligence advance and jobs are increasingly mechanised, that downward trend was likely to continue.
She said the findings showed the urgent need to reform Australia’s employment system.
FULL STORY
‘The worst we’ve seen’: The type of job that’s getting harder to find in Australia (SBS News)
