Return of the Long-term Unemployed
That plague of late last century is back. Although the latest employment statistics look good on the surface, underneath the evil of long-term unemployment is on the rise again.
Unemployment in Australia is basically around the 5 percent mark, which is good compared to other developed nations. The number of people employed in February 2011 was 2.9 percent higher than a year earlier, and recently there has been a slight shift from part-time to full-time work. All signs of a healthy economy.
There are, however, two blotches on the landscape. There are still 700,000 Australians working part time who would do more work if they could. That's almost a quarter of all people working full time. Clearly they would like a full-time job but haven't been able to get one. It's a fact hidden from that 5 percent unemployment figure.
The other ogre is the alarming rise in the number of Australians on the long-term unemployment scrapheap. It seems they are destroying the positive trend established over the last 15 years or so. The number of people out of work for a year of more fell from over 200,000 in the late '90s to around 70,000 by late 2008. You'd have to assume that welfare restrictions managed to pull a few surfers off the beach, leaving us perhaps with a more genuine reflection of those who want work but are struggling to get it.
The sad truth is that in a little over two years the long-term unemployment figure has risen 75 percent, to hit 128,000 in March this year, the highest level for seven and a half years. Clearly not dole bludgers, these are people hit by circumstance with the sole-destroying reality of life without work.
So what do we know about these people, and what's gone wrong for them? Well, they're a mix of the young and middle aged. Unemployment is very high for males in the 20-24 age range at 7.3 percent of all people (not just those on the dole). In South Australia and Queensland it's close to 10 percent, three times the Australian average. One in five of these young males are long-term unemployed.
Young women don't seem to hit the same issue. Unemployment for them is close to half that of their male counterparts and they seem to bounce back and find a job much quicker.
The real concern is for men once they hit their mid-50s. Male unemployment by that stage is less than 3 percent of the population, but if you haven't got a job the chances are close to half that you won't have one for at least a year. In fact they are worse than even in NSW, a state which is home to almost 40 percent of long-term unemployed males aged 55 or more.
Across any age group, women don't have the same problem as men. They seem better at finding another job, although perhaps many of those slip into part-time work or have given up looking and are reliant on their partner's income.
The worrying question is: why is the number of long-term unemployed on the rise? Is it just a consequence of the global financial crisis, where people lost their jobs and were of an age where it was difficult to find another one? I know many people who, having lost their jobs late in their career, are aghast at the ageism of recruiters.
There are lots of theories. Feel free to add your own. In the meantime, perhaps you could do your bit and offer a job to someone with good credentials who has been off the payroll for a while. There's well over one hundred thousand of them to choose from.
Sources:
- Labour Force, Australia - Feb 2011 (ABS)
- Underemployed workers, Australia - Sept 2010 (ABS)
- Labour Force, Australia (detailed) - Feb 2011 (ABS)
Read more By The Numbers articles by Phil Dobbie here.