The snapshot outlines the kinds of jobs that people who use jobactive employment services get, with an emphasis on people who find it harder to get decent ongoing employment.
Our analysis shows that despite there being a low unemployment rate of around 4%, this masks the fact that there are more people who are underemployed and long term unemployed than there were before the COVID pandemic. This growth in underemployment and long term unemployment reflects the fact that people who do not get jobs easily are being left out of the jobs market.
This means that people who use jobactive employment services are likely to get jobs that are more insecure than other jobs. ACOSS analysis shows that people who are classified as finding it hard to get jobs, are more likely to get jobs that are part-time or casual than others who are not classified this way, such as those who are put into Stream A of jobactive.
The fact that people who do not find it easy to get secure jobs is troubling, because there has been a decline in entry level jobs over the past 10 years. This makes it even more difficult for people experiencing unemployment long time to get work.
ACOSS’s analysis shows that the education levels of most people using jobactive employment services means that the jobs they are likely to get are ‘entry level’. We define entry level jobs as those classified by the Skills Commission at Skill Levels 4-5, which require the equivalent of Year 12 qualifications or less. It is important to note the number of Entry Level jobs has been declining.
Related information
ACOSS proposal for a Jobs and Training Guarantee