Anglicare’s Annual Jobs Availability Snapshot has found there were 5.49 people competing for each entry-level job, while one in seven jobseekers faced difficulties getting into work such as a disability or minimal education, The Guardian reports.
As the government rejects calls to lift Newstart, the charity’s report said people were being trapped in poverty and receiving welfare penalties for failing to effectively look for work because they were forced to “compete for jobs that simply do not exist”.
To measure how many jobs are available for those without qualifications or work experience, the report compares the number of people engaged with the government’s Jobactive program that are considered disadvantaged with the amount of low-skilled or entry-level jobs advertised at a given time.
It found there were about 100,000 disadvantaged jobseekers in May, of a total of 700,000, while there were only 18,200 low-skilled “level 5” jobs advertised. These jobs made up only 10% of all jobs.
“As this snapshot highlights, there are simply not enough suitable jobs for people who need the most assistance to get them,” the report said.
Anglicare said the results were conservative because they did not take into account the 1.6 million workers who considered themselves underemployed over the same period in May.
It said the findings proved the need to increase Newstart and Youth Allowance, which is about $280 a week for a single person over 21.
It also called for a reversal of policy changes from successive governments that pushed tens of thousands of people of the disability pension and on to the dole, and an overhaul of the employment services system.
The report cited analysis in Guardian Australia showing that while about 580,000 people had their welfare payments suspended in the past financial year of a total 744,000 jobseekers, one in five were found not to be at fault.
FULL STORY
Anglicare finds five jobseekers applying for every entry-level position (The Guardian)
Anglicare Jobs Availability Snapshot 2019
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‘Simple mathematical fact’: Report finds lack of jobs for nation’s unemployed (Canberra Times)
Vulnerable, jobless Australians taking five years to find work, report finds (The New Daily)