By citing lack of responsibility and no sense of obligation as their character flaws, Prime Minister Gillard grossly ignores the evidence that the problem with unemployment is as much, or maybe more, a demand side problem as the fault of the unfortunate supply side of underused labor.
There are thousands of people who are desperate for jobs amongst the million plus who are officially looking for work or who would take work if it were available. The official ABS figures counted only 170,000 private sector vacancies in February and most of these would require recent employment experience, qualifications and skills. There are 230,000 job seekers on Newstart and 600,000 plus looking for work in the ABS count, let alone a million more on other payments, or no payment at all, who are looking for work. So where are the jobs for them all or even half of them?
The prejudices and judgements of most employers to those without recent or appropriate experience shouldn’t be discounted. Most of the discouraged workers who knew jobs were there claimed they were rejected for being too old or sometimes too young to get the jobs they applied for. We know there is discrimination against older workers and age correlates with long-term unemployment. We also know that long-term unemployment, even with recent training, will also be held against an applicant.
There are many other prejudices and biases that apply when people with disabilities or some other limiting factors apply for jobs. Yes, there are special services but they place only a limited number of people and have to work hard with employers to make it happen. If applicants live in suburbs with a bad name, are obviously from a particular ethnic group that is seen as a problem or even live a long way away, they are much more likely to miss out on jobs.
A few years ago I led a study of sole parents with Terry Priest, when the Howard government started to put them on Newstart to “push” them into paid employment once their child turned six. The parents we interviewed were usually quite keen to work but found many barriers. Apart from prejudice amongst some employers, there were practical difficulties in finding hours that allowed them to drop children at school and be there when needed. It was hard to find jobs that coincided with school hours and recognised that sick children needed care sometimes and other time constraints.
There is no work being done on employer attitudes, or on helping employers to work out how to make employment more friendly to people with intermittent health problems or children with care needs. There is little recourse for the many applicants who are forced to go to interviews to fulfil job-hunting requirements but are regularly knocked back because they don’t fit most employers’ limited or prejudiced views. This type of experience destroys what is often limited self-confidence and not surprisingly may lead to avoidance of further rejections.
We need to ask why relatively few job placements occur through the expensive job placement networks and most people find jobs through contacts. These do not exist in areas with many unemployed or families without jobs. We need to recognise that there are relatively few genuine slackers that are out there but there are some deprived groups that have long experience as outsiders and being discriminated against. Assuming that all they need is to get off their butts just adds to their alienation as they and many others know that they are unlikely to please any potential employer without work being done on the employers’ prejudices and assumptions.
We know from many studies that serious paid work experience, not make-work for the dole, over an extended period, can lift people’s confidence and help them move onto other jobs. We also know that interminable training without a specific job in view does little to assist in finding jobs. We also know that being unemployed is devastating and deeply distressing for many who are. Therefore making them scapegoats for the political appeal to judgemental tax payers is not useful and also unfair.
“Labor by name and Labour by nature” may be a catchy title but it does little for those society excludes and then rejects.
Here, here
Don’t forget that other group that faces a lot of discrimination trying to get jobs – refugees. Their experience is that Job Service Australia providers are absolutely no help in getting jobs, just interested in checking up on their job search efforts. JSA providers don’t seem to have the relationships with employers to get unemployed refugees into jobs.
Have a look at this report from the Refugee Council on what works for getting refugees into jobs (see particularly CH. 5). Probably applies to other unemployed groups as well
http://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/docs/resources/reports/What_Works.pdf
As the exposure of NoW journalists continue, there is no good reason the same hasn’t happened here. Because we do not know, doesn’t make it not so.
Nice work Eva. Your points are well made.
Once again the ‘unelected’ PM has revealed herself to be nothing more than a conservative careerist, who is trashing the core Labor party values week by week.
How did we end up with such a disingenuous lightweight as PM?
And just what does that mean clever Puss.
Thanks Eva my son 19 does not register in the unemployment figures as he is not eligible for Newstart. We watch in pain as he is forced by our system to seek work at the entry level to our work force. Nothing in 12 years of education (mostly private) has prepared him for this and at his age he wants to be indepedent of his parents so our handringing is of little value to him. He would love to be pulling his weight but can find no space on an ever decreasing rope. His self confidence is dropping daily to the point where I worry for his mental health. We are the fortune ones in the top 2-5 perecent. We can give him a wage but what he wants is a job. A sensitive boy wise for his age he is thinking of the police force or the army as they have low barriers to entry.
Ms Gillards labor party is wrongly named no longer a labour party it should be called the labore party because of its inability to do anythingnor even say anything that is usefull.
Ms Gillard stop using outdated liberal party tactics to attack the hepless stand up to Abott and his gang of bullies.
Stand up for those seeking jobs and stop using them as easy meat to feed populist rhetoric. Put the u back in Labour and drop the phoney me.
Onya Eva.