Young people can expect to fight for jobs for the next decade as the virus rocks the Australian economy, As a resume and cover letter writer, about 40 per cent of my clients are young people. I want them to get work. I want them to get ahead in their careers. Fighting for young people is a moral and ethical crusade at Republic Resumes. This story is from the ABC.
Danielle Payne’s career is only in its first act and now it’s paused indefinitely, as the coronavirus pandemic halts production in the film industry.
Many younger workers are employed in industries that have felt the early fallout of coronavirus, including the arts, retail and hospitality. During the last recession in the early 1990s, the youth unemployment rate peaked above 20 per cent
“It is likely over the next couple of years that we will see wage growth ease towards its lowest level since the Great Depression,” says economist Callam Pickering.
The 25-year-old has been working as a camera assistant for two years and says getting established is all about momentum.
“The last job I had was on March 13 and every job after that got cancelled — I had probably a month’s work lined up, various short films and commercials and they were all cancelled,” she said. “When you’re not fully established in your career it just adds to the uncertainty.”
Younger workers are overrepresented in occupations that have been directly impacted by the early economic fallout of the pandemic, including hospitality, retail, the arts, sports and recreation, and child care.
“Around 40 per cent of younger workers are in retail or hospitality… that compares with around 13 per cent of all workers, so younger Australians are really at the centre of what’s going on — they’re being hit hard from a number of different angles,” Callam Pickering, economist at jobs site Indeed, told The Business.
Prior to the current downturn, Mr Pickering said younger Australians were already “doing it tough” — in February, the unemployment rate for 15- to 24-year-olds was 12.2 per cent.
The youth underemployment rate, which is the measure of young people looking for more hours of work, rose to 18.3 per cent.
With Treasury forecasting the general unemployment rate to hit 10 per cent as Australia enters a recession, previous downturns indicate the youth unemployment rate could be heading much higher than that.
“History suggests that the impact of COVID-19 will stick with younger people for much of the next decade,” Mr Pickering said. “That was certainly the case in the last recession of the early 1990s and in the global financial crisis of just 12 years ago.”
During the last recession, the youth unemployment rate peaked above 20 per cent in 1992 — compared to the peak of 11.2 per cent for the broader unemployment rate.
After the GFC, it climbed again, hitting 14 per cent in 2014 and remaining elevated today.
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