unemployment rate is now at its highest level since September 2009

[Guest BurgessFamily]

"unemployment rate is now at its highest level since September 2009"

"The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates show the rate climbed from an upwardly revised 5.6 per cent in May, to 5.7 per cent in June.May's figure was revised up from 5.5 per cent."

"The number of young people looking for full-time work has climbed to 27.3 per cent, its highest rate in 15 years."

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-11/unemployment-figures-for-june/4813876?section=business

[Lazy Cow]

"The number of young people looking for full-time work has climbed to 27.3 per cent, its highest rate in 15 years."

 

No surprises there!

 

I thought it was interesting that they report a rise in people who are already employed yet are looking for more hours.

 

I would love to know how they get the estimates for young people looking for work and people looking for more hours.

 

What I mean is, almost everyone I work with is looking for a second job (we are unlikely to get more hours where we are) but none of us is registered anywhere....so how accurate are the estimates they quote?

 

As for the 'young people' referred to, again how accurate can they be when so many kids don't bother signing on with Jobseekers as they won't be entitled to any money anyway?

 

I know very little about this so I probably shouldn't venture an opinion but hey ho...

 

I reckon the unemployment rate is waaay higher than their estimates indicate and I think the kids are being hit hard. Which, unless you're unfortunate enough to have a combined family income less than (something like) $55k means your child will have to look to you for money as long as they live at home. Not an easy situation for anyone I reckon.

 

Thanks for the article though.

 

LC

[Tamara (Homes Down Under)]

It's also a litle worse in South Australia...6%.

 

Most retail is having a tough time right now. If you look at the big supermarket and hardware chains....Woollies and Bunnings for example...they have plenty of people who are employed as casuals and when sales are down they simply don't call the workers in for shifts. This happened to one of my family last year...didn't get a single shift for months. A permanent position came up (at a lower rate of pay as the casual rate is a few Dollars higher) and they took it which guarantees income every week.

There are so many apprentice positions available with government funding. I have a son who's doing an apprenticeship but the hourly rate is terrible which is a real disincentive for young people when they can earn so much more at a casual job in a fast food place for example.

 

Tamara

[jim and adel]

No surprises there!

 

I thought it was interesting that they report a rise in people who are already employed yet are looking for more hours.

 

I would love to know how they get the estimates for young people looking for work and people looking for more hours.

 

What I mean is, almost everyone I work with is looking for a second job (we are unlikely to get more hours where we are) but none of us is registered anywhere....so how accurate are the estimates they quote?

 

As for the 'young people' referred to, again how accurate can they be when so many kids don't bother signing on with Jobseekers as they won't be entitled to any money anyway?

 

I know very little about this so I probably shouldn't venture an opinion but hey ho...

 

I reckon the unemployment rate is waaay higher than their estimates indicate and I think the kids are being hit hard. Which, unless you're unfortunate enough to have a combined family income less than (something like) $55k means your child will have to look to you for money as long as they live at home. Not an easy situation for anyone I reckon.

 

Thanks for the article though.

 

LC

How unemployment is measured in Australia is somewhat dodgy. The ABS samples 30,000 people monthly for eight months by telephone (replacing one-eighth of the sample with different people every month). People are classed as unemployed if they've actively looked for work in the previous four weeks (submitted applications, telephoned companies to enquire about job openings, sent out their CV etc), and been available to do work should it come their way.

If a person is not working but on certain benefits it means they aren't regarded as unemployed.

Anyone in the sample who's not actively looked for work in the previous four weeks (perhaps because they're thoroughly demoralised as a result of handing-out-CVs etc without any positive response) isn't regarded as being in the job market and therefore not added to the unemployment figure.

Working for just one hour in the fortnight before the sample (even without pay if in a family business or on a farm) means the person gets added to the 'employed' column.

The Roy Morgan Research Centre Ltd measures what it calls 'real unemployment', where over 50,000 people per year (1,000 per weekend) are interviewed face-to-face. If they are out of work but 'ready, willing and able' to work, they are regarded as unemployed, whether or not they've actively sought work in the previous four weeks.

Roy Morgan's latest unemployment estimate (issued last month) gives an unemployment rate at 9.7% instead of the ABS published figure of 5.7%.

"In June 2013 an estimated 1.2 million Australians (9.7% of the workforce) were unemployed. This is up 35,000 (0.2%) from last month. The Australian workforce was 12,453,000 (up 125,000) comprising 7,540,000 full-time workers (down 57,000), 3,708,000 part-time workers (up 145,000) and 1,205,000 looking for work (up 37,000) according to the Roy Morgan monthly employment estimates. These figures exclude people who have dropped out of the workforce and given up looking.

"Among those who were employed 1,141,000 Australians (9.2% of the workforce) working part-time and looking for more work were under-employed. This is 180,000 more than a month ago (up 1.4%).

"In June an estimated 2.346 million Australians (18.9% of the workforce, up 1.6% from May) were unemployed or under-employed (217,000 more than last month), also much higher (246,000, 1.4%) than 12 months ago in June 2012 (2.1 million)."

A poll was conducted last year asking which set of figures people regarded as most accurate – Roy Morgan's monthly estimate or the published ABS figures. Over 60% of respondents felt that Roy Morgan's figures gave a truer picture of what was happening with unemployment. With 10% answering 'don't know', this suggests just three in ten people believe the official unemployment figures.

Things get even messier when looking at workforce participation rates ...

Jim

 

[Meadows]

Hi Tamara

 

Not sure if I agree with you about "so many apprenticeships available with government funding".

I have a 21 year old who has been looking for an apprenticeship for 2 years now, and he has Cert 2s from TAFE in Electronics, Fabrication & Welding, Electrotechnology (Career Start) and just finished another in Pre Press. He has a White Card and we even paid for him to get a Forklift licence to maximise his chances. Before we arrived in Adelaide he even did courses in UK in engineering and electrics.

He looks every day for apprenticeships and there is precious little out there. No point in applying for Holden apprenticeships and not yet a citizen so unable to apply for those apprenticeships with the defence industry.

He is even thinking about doing another Cert 2 (rather than be a dole bludger) although with 4 Cert 2s, already under his belt, he thinks he has little chance of getting anything.

He has been told he is too old for an apprenticeship now, employers only want 16 year olds for whom they only have to pay the minimum wage.

He tells me many of his fellow TAFE students are out of work too, very, very few ever get apprenticeships, despite the government pushing the Skills for All agenda.

It is very disheartening for him, he really wants to get started on his apprenticeship but who knows when or if this will ever happen!

[Guest BurgessFamily]

 

Regarding apprenticeships, they were saying on the radio that it's not worth the investment for a lot of companies. They are worried about investing time and money for a few years and then losing them to better paid work. As far as the technical trades go, they were losing them to the mining industry - so they saw a $250k (??!) investment being lost to something they couldn't compete with.

 

I think it needs the government to offer some sort of security for companies that invest in youth.

Edited July 12, 2013 by BurgessFamily

[Tamara (Homes Down Under)]

Hi Tamara

 

Not sure if I agree with you about "so many apprenticeships available with government funding".

I have a 21 year old who has been looking for an apprenticeship for 2 years now, and he has Cert 2s from TAFE in Electronics, Fabrication & Welding, Electrotechnology (Career Start) and just finished another in Pre Press. He has a White Card and we even paid for him to get a Forklift licence to maximise his chances. Before we arrived in Adelaide he even did courses in UK in engineering and electrics.

He looks every day for apprenticeships and there is precious little out there. No point in applying for Holden apprenticeships and not yet a citizen so unable to apply for those apprenticeships with the defence industry.

He is even thinking about doing another Cert 2 (rather than be a dole bludger) although with 4 Cert 2s, already under his belt, he thinks he has little chance of getting anything.

He has been told he is too old for an apprenticeship now, employers only want 16 year olds for whom they only have to pay the minimum wage.

He tells me many of his fellow TAFE students are out of work too, very, very few ever get apprenticeships, despite the government pushing the Skills for All agenda.

It is very disheartening for him, he really wants to get started on his apprenticeship but who knows when or if this will ever happen!

 

Hi there,

So sorry to hear that your son is having so much trouble securing an apprenticeship.

I can only think that it's career specific. My son started with engineering but he wasn't getting anywhere. He decided that he wanted to be a butcher and was enrolled in the Regency TAFE. Upon completion of the course he had a choice of places to do his apprenticeship...from Woolworths, Coles, Foodland etc. He chose to work at a small goods butcher and his apprenticship was arranged by his TAFE lecturer. Everyone in his class (including older students (30 years old) were successful in securing apprenticeships.

Manufacturing and engineering are having a real tough time right now. It's touch and go whether Holden will survive. I was in the apprenticeship centre in Beach road, Christies a couple of weeks ago and they were really helpful.

 

Tamara

Edited July 13, 2013 by Tamara (Homes Down Under)

[Lazy Cow]

I can only think that it's carrer specific.

 

I think you might be right, Tamara.

 

My son has been offered a couple of bricklaying apprenticeships but he really doesn't want to be a brickie. As you said, the hourly rate is so low, it doesn't act as an incentive; I think you'd really have to focus on the promised mega-bucks at the end!

 

It doesn't seem to be as usual now for whole classes that have finished their TAFE courses to be placed in apprenticeships. I know a couple of diesel mechanic classes that have only placed ONE apprentice, which was such a let down for the other, equally eager, kids.

 

One of the large plumbers my OH works with has had to drop a couple of their apprentices and one builder had it so bad he had to let go two, one of which is his son (bet that went down well at home lol!).

 

This is an emotive subject. If you are lucky enough to be fully and securely employed then good onya but you probably won't see things the way people who are not that lucky might see them. If you, or a member of your family, is looking for work but hasn't yet been successful you might perceive things differently.

[Lazy Cow]

Thank you, jim and adel, I finally understand.

 

As they say, there are three kinds of lies, "Lies, damn lies and statistics"!

 

LC

[Tamara (Homes Down Under)]

I think you might be right, Tamara.

 

My son has been offered a couple of bricklaying apprenticeships but he really doesn't want to be a brickie. As you said, the hourly rate is so low, it doesn't act as an incentive; I think you'd really have to focus on the promised mega-bucks at the end!

 

It doesn't seem to be as usual now for whole classes that have finished their TAFE courses to be placed in apprenticeships. I know a couple of diesel mechanic classes that have only placed ONE apprentice, which was such a let down for the other, equally eager, kids.

 

One of the large plumbers my OH works with has had to drop a couple of their apprentices and one builder had it so bad he had to let go two, one of which is his son (bet that went down well at home lol!).

 

This is an emotive subject. If you are lucky enough to be fully and securely employed then good onya but you probably won't see things the way people who are not that lucky might see them. If you, or a member of your family, is looking for work but hasn't yet been successful you might perceive things differently.

 

I totally agree.

It's very competitive out there right now.

It is such a shame that there are motivated people wanting to do apprenticeships, the funding is there for it but prospective employers are hesitant to commit.

To be honest I think that it's amazing that there are people wanting to enrol in apprenticeships when the wages are terrible. As a first year my son was earning $380 per week and as a second year it's just gone up a little. Young people can earn more in a fast food job or a supermarket so the motivation has to be there with the realisation that they will have a trade and hopefully job for life at the end of it. It's tough to be at work at 6 every morning (especially being young!) and many don't complete the entire apprenticeship.

I did a 4 year apprenticeship when I was young. Same story, terrible pay etc but the trade got me here!!!

 

Maybe we can do more on this site to help people get leads for jobs? From my network of people I have often helped newbies and as everyone knows it can be tough when you first get here.

 

Tamara

[Ian&Beth]

Not sure if its the same here, but unemployment always rises under a labour government in the uk. In recent history it has a lot to do with the fact Labour have made it more profitable to do bugger all than struggle on a low income.

[Cedric]

"The number of young people looking for full-time work has climbed to 27.3 per cent, its highest rate in 15 years."

 

 

That's the one figure that looks the most worrying in my opinion (although I wonder what age range it encompasses)