Over the last month, the LNP have been issuing very bold statements about unemployment in Australia, like MP Josh Frydenberg who claimed recently that ‘we are having the greatest level of job growth since 2006’, or Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull saying that his government has ‘created 300,000 jobs by the end of 2015’. While this all sounds very positive, what does the data really suggest?
While both of these statements may be correct, there is certainly a lot more to it and the data is not suggesting anything positive. Experts contracted by ABC’s fact check investigated the claims and found that the number Mr Turnbull used does not distinguish between full-time and part-time jobs, but they agreed that the survey was the best source of data to measure jobs growth. While the number used only gives us a figure of the amount of jobs, rather than those who have recieved long term or fulltime work. Other data such as the employment to population ratio and the participation rate suggests that more people are working multiple jobs and that people are going through jobs a lot quicker. [1], [2].
All political rhetoric aside, it’s no big secret that young Australians are finding it tougher than ever before to enter the workforce. With Youth Unemployment soaring to 14.07% in January and more cuts to the budget being made, overcrowded recruitment agencies are publicly calling for fresh thinking on how to get our “next generation of workers into the workforce”. However, anyone who has been to a job agency will tell you that many of the workers are not interested in getting them a job and would much rather get them on a higher rate of eligibility for support – as the agency gets a commission – and to get you either working for the dole or selling you a TAFE course subsidy of some kind. Very rarely will you find an actual up to date list of jobs going in the local area. [3], [4], [5].
All of this comes at a time when the Murdoch controlled media is having another stab at the unemployed, comparing unemployed people to economic parasites, it’s like the wave of ‘yellow peril’ propaganda all over again. The real welfare bludgers are elsewhere however, in the vast system of jobservice providers that manage and control the collective of jobseekers. From information gathering for marketing companies to finding ways to get people 
booted off their benefits, job agencies have been busier then ever before. At any one time, around 800,000 Australians are enrolled. The revenue for job service providers comes almost entirely from the taxpayer and they have been anything but effective. Audits of the job services system by the Australian National Audit Office is proof of this devastating assessment of the entire work for the dole policy. This was only to be expected, because every jobseeker has to be in the system to get their payment, there is no control group against which to compare. Essentially there is no way to determine whether or not the work for the dole program even works other than an assessment of whether or not the person was financially better off as a result of being a part of the program. The statistics show that the vast majority of people were worse off.
“The department has not assessed the contribution of the expenditure on Job Services Australia in achieving the desired program outcomes,” the Audit Office states. [6], [7].
Back when Julia Gillard kicked approximately 80,000 sole parents off their parenting payment and onto unemployment benefits, she justified it by claiming it is aimed at getting more women into the workforce. “the lower payment was an incentive for sole parents to go out and find work.” Although it was declared as an inhumane act by the UN – who actually investigated the matter – and now we are catching wind of plans to make the pension function as a loan against the family home. Things are certainly not looking up for Australia and there is a serious issue that needs a resolution… or does it?
The Federal Government have a figure called the ‘capacity utilisation rate’, which is the extent to which a nation actually uses its installed productive capacity. To explain this more simply, it is basically the proportion of our nations industrial capacity that is being used as opposed to the proportion that is gathering rust and being wasted, this proportion is often reffered to as ‘excess capacity’.
Our Capacity Utilisation Rate in Australia is sitting at around 80%, which of course leaves this excess of around 20% of the potential industry that isn’t being used. With the unemployment rate sitting at around 6% and there being a constant threat of economic doom if we don’t make cuts to our budget, why is there no increase in the labour force of Australia?
Is there enough equipment, raw materials and demand to increase employment? Yes, there is.
Would it create more wealth? Yes.
It seems like such a simple solution, to get those who are unemployed and want to work and put them with the tools and equipment that are gathering rust and dust… so who or what is preventing this? [8], [9].
Essentially, we are we not creating jobs as fast as young people are entering the workforce, even though we could be. Some of you may recall Tony Abbotts failed attempt at bringing back “work choices”, which fundamentally stripped workers of their rights. One of the bigger contributing factors to this is capitalist politics, keeping the workforce competition high. The more people that need the work, the more people that are open to being exploited. With wages not rising, workers rights being abolished and unions being given less power, we are making workers more expendable to this type of exploitation. Bureau of Statistics figures show that Australian wages are rising at the slowest rate on record, since the data started being recorded back in 1997 and the cost of living is rising at a rate that engulfs Australian wages, as the cost of living is rising a lot faster than the rate of wage increases. We are in an economic crisis and the culprits are not the people of Australia, but its corrupted leadership who’d much rather bend to the knees at corporate demands.
By dismantling Australia’s welfare and dis-empowering the worker, only the employer stands to benefit from this. The facts show that this system has not encouraged work development, but rather made it more sluggish. unemployment can not be expected to fix itself, It’s really not that difficult to work out that the more poor people there are, the less purchasing will happen as a result.
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