THE UNEMPLOYMENT rate in Ipswich is now the lowest recorded in the past decade, sitting at 5.2% despite the national average surging.
Peaking at 11,000 unemployed Ipswich residents at 9.5% in the first quarter of 2021 during Covid, it came in at 6518 this year.
A new report titled Faces of Unemployment has found entry-level jobs have declined, while long-term unemployment has significantly increased.
The results have prompted calls for an overhaul of Australia’s employment services system.
Meanwhile, the proportion of people on unemployment payments nationally who have been receiving them for more than a year has risen substantially from 51% in 2012 to 60% today.
A total of 557,000 people have been receiving unemployment payments for more than a year, and 190,000 have been receiving them for more than five years.
“We have a mismatch in the labour market with fewer entry-level jobs available, making it harder for people on income support to transition back into paid employment,” said Australian Council of Social Service Dr Cassandra Goldie.
“We know that people with partial work capacity, older people and First Nations people experience significant barriers to accessing paid work, including workplace discrimination, location, and suitability of work.
“We have also seen the Government shift people with disability or chronic health conditions from the Disability Support Pension to unemployment payments.
“Australia’s unemployment payment is the lowest among wealthy nations and we spend less than most of our peers on labour market policies such as wage subsidies which are highly effective.
“We urgently need a complete overhaul of employment policy, including much greater investment in employment programs, lifting income support payments to livable levels, a commitment to ambitious full employment targets, and ending harmful automated payment suspensions.”
There are 920,000 people currently relying on unemployment related payments, such as JobSeeker and Youth Allowance.
Australia spends 0.4% of GDP on labour market policies, significantly less than many other wealthy countries, including Denmark and New Zealand who both spend 1.7%.
With a Federal Election set to be held early next year, ACOSS is calling for the Government to commit to ambitious full employment targets incorporating unemployment, under-employment, and a ratio of job vacancies to people unemployed, to increase JobSeeker, Youth Allowance, Parenting Payment, and related payments to at least $82 a day, in line with pension payments.
