When I first started helping people find work many years ago, almost all of my clients were under 30. Today, we are witnessing an unemployment and underemployment tragedy unfolding for young people across Australia.
The two most recent official recessions we have experienced, in the early 1980s and the early 1990s, had long-lasting impacts on the jobs market and especially young people.
While economic growth bounced back relatively quickly, it took years — decades even — for the jobs market to recover, to the level it was before the recession hit.
It took the best part of a decade for unemployment to drop back below 6 per cent after spiking above 10 per cent in 1984.
Whole industries have now shut their doors and work has evaporated.
Remember, 3.5 million people are being kept afloat by the Federal Government’s JobKeeper program.
Even if just a quarter of them can’t find work when the program comes to an end at the end of September, the jobless rate will soar, to possibly 15 per cent or more.
Recessions hit two age groups particularly hard: those in the latter stages of their working life who find it almost impossible to re-enter the workforce when laid off, and the young.
If you’re fresh out of school or uni with no experience, it’s almost impossible to find a job. And the longer you are separated from studies in your chosen field, the less chance you’ve got of scoring one.
Both recessions became known as the “lost decade” for a generation of younger workers, consigning many to lower-paid positions and sporadic employment for the rest of their working lives.
It’s happening again now. Youth unemployment, at around 15 per cent, is more than double the official overall rate but remember, the unofficial rate is really about 12 per cent.
A further 22 per cent aren’t getting as much work as they need. These are considered the underemployed.
Add both those numbers together and you end up with a record 37 per cent of our youth classed as “underutilised” in the workforce.
It’s not just higher welfare payments over an extended period, there also is the accompanying social unrest accompanied by increased crime among a disillusioned generation.