In the wake of the release of the budget, we at the Australian Unemployment Union believe it is a good time to reflect on the question of unemployment in Australia and what exactly the government is doing about it.
Today, there are 769,500 (or 6.2%) unemployed Australians – up from 453,100 in 2008. The level of underemployed people has also skyrocketed over this period – from 657,300 in 2008 to 1.069 million today.
When the rapid decrease of job vacancies is considered, the full extent of Australia’s unemployment crisis can be clearly observed. According to the most recent Government statistics, the amount of job vacancies today is 158,200 – almost half of the 2008 figure.
Altogether, this bleak picture means that there are 11 job seekers competing for each one of these job vacancies.
Given this alarming lack of jobs, it is unsurprising that long-term unemployment has reached unprecedented levels in Australia. Last year it was found that long-term unemployed had reached 500,000 – a figure that has almost doubled in size since the global financial crisis. Job seekers over 55 account for over 200,000 of this number and represent the fastest growing age group.
Currently, the Newstart Allowance is about $123 a week below the poverty line for a single adult. As a result of this low rate, all Newstart recipients are driven into poverty and the relentless financial struggle to survive as prices continue to skyrocket.
Given this clear unemployment crisis, what steps has the Abbott Government taken in this budget to fix this growing problem?
In the 2015 budget, the Abbott government announced they would commit over $330 million (or .0007% of total budget expenditure) on “targeted spending on new jobs initiatives aimed at employers and young job seekers to support the transition to work.”
This is a drop in the ocean and will not even come close to the sort of Government-led job creation needed to help the unemployed and underemployed to work.
If the government complete inaction on job creation was not enough, in 2015 they have also pledged to introduce several measures attacking the unemployed:
After being introduced, this raft of punitive policies will:
(1) subject all Newstart recipients who fail to attend their ‘Job Search’ appointments to stronger penalties which will result in a portion of their Newstart payment permanently withheld unless a ‘reasonable excuse’ is provided;
(2) require all ‘job ready’ Newstart recipients to Work for the Dole after only 6 months of receiving Newstart benefits (formerly 1 year);
(3) increase Work for the Dole requirements to 25 hours per week (formerly 15 hours) for those aged under 30;
(4) require around 37,000 mostly Indigenous job seekers in remote areas aged 18-49 to undertake Work For The Dole activities for 25 hours a week, five days a week, for most of the year.
(5) subject more Newstart recipients to the punitive Income Management scheme
(6) force all Newstart applicants aged under 25 to a one month waiting period, and finally
(7) crackdown on Newstart recipients collecting an incorrect payment
Contrary to what the Government says, these measures will only push the unemployed further away from work and into poverty. Join the AUU and lets fight for the dignity and rights of the unemployed and underemployed.
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