Inevitably, unemployment is a global problem for both developed and underdeveloped economies and Australia is no exception. As at March 2017, the unemployment rate of Australia stood at 5.9% despite the creation of 60,900 employment opportunities (Trading economics, n.d )Notably ,the unemployment levels have recorded an average of 6.91 % between 1978 and 2017.Specifically,full-time employment increased by two thousand nine hundred totaling to 528,600.Noteworthy,the number of unemployed in 2017 increased by four thousand .Despite these changes, Australia unemployment level is considered among the lowest worldwide.
In the year 2016, the unemployment rate reduced due to the few number of work searches. Notably, the unemployment rate stood at 6.% as at January and 5.8 % the next month in accordance with seasonal adjustments by the Bureau of Statistics in Australia(Turdgian,2016)According to the Australian Associated Press 2016,the unemployment rate in 2016 in Australia was the lowest as compared with the preceding three years at 5.6% in August .Notably ,the low unemployment level was influenced by the participation rate .Tasmania recorded the highest the unemployment rate at 7.2% as per the records of the Bureau of Statistics in Australia.
Unemployment rates remained steady trend wise in 2014 at 6% in September with an unemployment raise of ten thousand totaling to seven thousand and forty-six thousand, six hundred as per season adjustments. Moreover, the participation level dropped by to six four point five percent. Underemployment was blamed for the high unemployment rate in this year. Further, average monthly hours reduced by fifteen million hours. Notably, Western Australia had the highest employment levels while Queensland and South Australia experienced significant reductions.
Notably, the year 2015 recorded the highest unemployment rate since 2001.The number of employed persons stood at 11,699,000 at January 2015.Noteworthy, full-time employees dropped by 28,100 whereas part-time employees rose by fifteen thousand nine hundred. Further, the figure of full-time work searches rose to 551,800 while part-time job searches rose by 34,300 totaling to 243400 according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics .Moreover, workforce participation rate declined at 64.8 per cent. Primarily, in the year 2015, unemployment rates were highest in South Australia having rose from 6.6 percent to 7.3 %( Ferrer,2015) In addition, youth unemployment levels dropped by 0.3% from 13.30% to 13.27% in the year 2017.
Accordance to the labor force report dated September 2013,the rate of unemployed persons in Australia decreased by 0.1% to 5.6% .Notably ,the rate of unemployed persons in Australia dropped to Six hundred and ninety-seven thousand one hundred by fourteen thousand seven hundred(Australian Bureau of Statistics,2013)Subsequently, the level of unemployed population coincided with the participation level. Noteworthy, full-time employment rose by five thousand to a total figure of 8,133,700 whereas part-time employment shot upwards by four thousand one hundred totaling to three million five hundred and twelve thousand one hundred. Employment could be full-time or part-time.
Largely ,Queensland and Western Australia recorded the highest employment rates whereas New South Wales experienced the significant drop in employment opportunities in the year 2013(Australian Bureau of Statistics,2013)According to the Organization for economic cooperation and development, Australia has an above average work flexibility in terms of hours ,autonomy, teamwork and management practices as compared to others member economies(OECD,2016)Notably ,Denmark ,Finland and Sweden are among the best employment performers among other OECD economies in the world .However, Australia is among the states with low unemployment rates in the world.
Noteworthy ,the unemployment levels in the year 2012 was at 5.4% which is considered the highest it has been since 2010(Janda,2012)Notably, the unemployment rise was attributed to a rise in the participation levels by 0.2%.Further,youth unemployment levels doubled and stagnated at 12% of overall unemployment rates in Australia. Notably, the rate of employment growth slowed down in 2011 whereas employment rates had grown by 43000 towards the end of 2011(Borland, 2014) Following the mining boom, the employment rates in the mining industry grew. However, due to dollar appreciation following the boom, the manufacturing industry had to lay off most workers to the tune of 72,000 jobs (Borland, 2014)
States Unemployment rate
|
New South Wales |
5.2% |
|
Victoria |
5.6% |
|
Queensland |
6.3% |
|
South Australia |
5.6% |
|
Western Australia |
4% |
|
Tasmania |
7.3% |
|
Northern Territory |
3.9% |
Source: ABC, News
State Unemployment(%)
|
New South Wales |
6.3 |
|
Queensland |
6.5 |
|
Victoria |
6.6 |
|
Western Australia |
5.6 |
|
Tasmania |
6.6 |
Source: The Guardian, 2015
Predominantly, recent industry declines in Australia has caused massive job losses .Noteworthy ,following the closure of Ford operations in Australia, six hundred jobs were lost .Further, the closure of Holden and Toyota an estimated unemployment figure of 400000 is expected(Janda,2017)Further ,inadequate diversity in industrialization has created more job losses in South Australia .Also ,insufficient infrastructure has encouraged migration of investors to greener pastures thereby creating work gap hence unemployment(Sebastian ,n.d)Also, favorable taxation systems have encouraged investment in some areas and deterred investment in certain states.
Further, global financial crisis has put pressure on existing investments leading to other investments shutting down thereby people losing their jobs. Moreover, technological changes have rendered manual labor inefficiency and time consuming thereby leading to job losses. In addition, technological advancement has rendered some workers obsolete due to their skill redundancies and their inability to adapt to the technological changes at the workplace. Population increase due to immigration has put pressure on the existing employment opportunities in Australia. Also, seasonality of the tourism and agricultural sector and other seasonal industries has a tendency of creating unemployment when peak season ends due to the nature and availability of the product or service.
Shortage of skilled labor is also to blame for high unemployment levels in Australia (Richardson, n.d.)Seasonal products and services limit the demand for workers during peak seasons only and layoffs during off-peak seasons to enable seasonally operating firms to maximize their profit during off and peak season. Seasonal industries are likely to opt for casual laborers as opposed to permanent employees. Further, shortage of skilled labor has increased the unemployment gap. Notably, worker skills ought to conform to the requisite jobs to which they are assigned to. However, in most cases workers lack the requisite skills for the jobs they are currently employed to do.
Vocational training is a good way to sharpen worker skills to increase productivity, efficiency and quality at the workplace.Also,technological changes have made it necessary and inevitable for workers to adapt their skill set to the current technological advancement for relevancy at the workplace .Work redundancies are fuelled by unskilled labor and inadaptness to the current economic and technological changes .Reduced consumer spending has contributed to employment opportunities in retailing in the sense that few expenditure influences the output. Less expenditure will mean less production hence less need for employees at retailing outlets thereby causing joblessness for workers in the retail industry.
Further ,the decline in the construction and building sectors has contributed to the high unemployment rates in Australia because with the closure of these industries workers lose their employment(Wade,2012)In addition ,decline in Agricultural industry has also added to unemployment levels in Australia following the challenges facing the sector .Moreover ,the high rate of immigrants into Australia has put pressure on job opportunities for most Australians.Predominantly,33% of migrants remain unemployed for the first five years in Australia(Bita,2017)Noteworthy, the number of unemployed middle eastern immigrants has doubled in ten years with only one out of three migrants unemployed.
Islamic migrants’ joblessness is attributed to cultural beliefs and dressing code thus high rate of unemployed Islamic migrants as compared to other immigrants. It is common for Islamic women to wear hijab always. However, due to migration, some employers tend to shy away from employing Islamic women because of the hijab-wearing culture. Some employers don’t recruit immigrants of Islamic origin due to terroristic beliefs and hideous dressing code among other stereotyping beliefs. Either way, the entry of immigrants into Australia puts pressure on the job market hence there is increased competition for jobs between migrants and locals thereby causing employment opportunities to be more competitive and scarce.
Notably, there are four major types of unemployment globally. Namely, cyclical, structural, Frictional and seasonal unemployment. Also, classical, regional and voluntary are forms of unemployment (Economics Online, n.d.)Cyclical unemployment is triggered by decline in aggregate demand for goods and services leading to work layoffs whereas structural unemployment is due to decline of industries hence workers lose their jobs when their industries shut down .Primarily, seasonal unemployment affects workers in seasonal producing industries such as tourism and farming .Frictional unemployment refers to the state of joblessness due to transition from one job to another while voluntary unemployment is when workers choose not to work due to existing wage rate.
According to the Australian Council of trade Unions, the unemployment rates in Australia in the year 2015 was 6% across a period of nine months hence the risk of falling into long-term structural unemployment. Primarily, long-term unemployment is triggered by lack of motivation, inadequate skills and experience and competition for limited employment opportunities .Moreover, long-term unemployment disconnects the unemployed from work and social connections.Notably,men have reported high rates of long-term unemployment as compared to women. The decline of key Australian industries, namely the Automotive, mining, construction and agriculture sector challenges have caused long-term unemployment for a massive Australian population.
Recession and high economic growth rates may influence cyclical unemployment among the labor force.Business cycles are affected by economic changes due to the low aggregate demand for commodities and services in an economy(Beggs,2017) Notably, recession and events like financial crisis makes operating a business challenging thus prompting some employers to let go of their staff in order to maximize their business profits and to keep their production costs lows due to harsh financial and economic conditions .Cyclical unemployment could be temporary too due to the fact that when economic conditions turn for the better cyclical unemployment disappears and the unemployed find employment opportunities due to better economic times.
Predominantly, frictional unemployment happens when a worker is transitioning from one job to another. The period through which a person looks for another job after leaving the one he or she had which is a common occurrence for various reasons such as relocation, layoffs or move to different type of job. Primarily, this type of unemployment is temporary (Beggs, 2017)Also ,technological advancement may cause a worker to be frictionally unemployed due to redundancies and inadaptability to change.
Underemployment could be due to few working hours. Underemployment rate in Australia have been on the rise in the last ten years. Largely, underemployment is attributed to industry transition following the decline in mining and construction industries into the service sector. Various firms have opted to offer part-time employment as opposed to layoffs (Patty,2016)The current underemployment levels in Australia are way higher than they were during the recession in the 1990 s.Largely,the closure of key Australian industries such as the automotive manufacturing industry has promoted high underemployment rates in most states in Australia .Most car manufacturers have closed production lines in Australia citing high production costs and hard economic times(Janda,2017)
Further, reduced investment into the mining industry in Australia following the end of the mining boom has led to many workers losing their employment packages at the mines. Notably ,the mining boom created more employment opportunities during its glory days but following the decline of the mining sector due to various factors among them the global financial crisis ,it has been a struggle to maintain employment opportunities by miners .Most mining employers are striving to survive and maximize profit with limited budget hence the layoffs .However, some workers are working few hours under part-time offers which has contributed to high underemployment rates in the overall unemployment rates in Australian states.
Noteworthy, the youth unemployment levels have risen by 13.5 per cent. Equally, underemployment levels have risen to 18% which is regarded as the highest in Australian History since forty years ago (Davidson, 2017) The high youthful unemployment rates is partly attributed to the global financial crisis which has reduced employment opportunities for the general population. Also, workplace inexperience of the youthful population has contributed to youthful unemployment. Notably, persons between the ages of 15-24 were unemployed and looking for work is at February 2017 totaling to 650000 unemployed youths. Work flexibility hours and vocational training is likely to significantly reduce the number of unemployed youths.
Further, Youth unemployed is attributed to inflexible working hours such that most youths are part –time employed. Also, implementation of counterproductive regulation at the workplace, mismatch of skills and unequal opportunities for disadvantaged youths has limited their accessibility to jobs (Carvalho, 2015) Also, youths in Australia are prone to long-term unemployment. Notably, male youth unemployment is rampant in Australia following the decline of the mining boom (Jackson, 2016) Further, 20 per cent of unemployed youths are jobless for intervals of more than a year thus increasing the likelihood of long-term unemployment among the youths in Australia.
Currently, the Australian government has withdrawn unemployment benefits for youths in a bid to encourage Australian youths aged 22 to 24 to study and later qualify for the youth allowance program instead of the Newstart program benefits(Chang,2017)Notably, this move will aid develop a knowledgeable culture with requisite skills for the future labor force of Australia while relieving taxpayers of the burden of the Newstart contribution payments through taxation. Usually the government raises its earnings through taxation of its citizens for public expenditure .Through this bill, youths have the incentive tow study hard and acquire the necessary training thereby increasing their chances of employment in the future .Also, part-time jobs are available to Australian youths with this Youth Allowance payment package .However, youths have to complete a program for a month before getting any earnings.
Specifically, more youths are partly employed as opposed to full time. Notably, long-term unemployment has hampered economic growth in Australia. Averagely, the long-term unemployment rate has increased from 0.6% to 1.2% in 2008 to 2014 respectively (Wade, 2014)Negatively ,long –term unemployment spells encourage redundancies o skills thereby causing layoffs at work due to work redundancies. Predominantly, the number of long-term unemployed persons is way higher than overall unemployment levels in Australia. Long-term unemployment implies the state of joblessness for more than 52 weeks (Vandenbroek, 2015)Usually, work skill redundancies have contributed to long –term unemployment spells.
Predominantly, age is a vital factor considered by most employers before hiring. For Most people, Youthful population are easier to work with and are more productive as compared to aging workers .Australia is no exception to this scrutiny .Recently ,workers aged above fifty years are considered too old to be unemployed thereby contributing to the high levels of unemployment in Australia(Chang,2016)Older workers are discriminated when it comes to employment opportunities thus the need for government intervention to protect this form of discrimination against older Australian workers.
Despite Australian Government intergenerational report which advocates for equal opportunities for all workers regardless of their age groups, the practice is different. Older worker labor participation contributes to $33b and an extra 3% thereby contributing to the overall gross domestic product of Australia .Further, the government of Australia has increased the pension package for older workers as they keep being in employment thus providing an incentive for older workers to keep working for as long as they possibly can. This incentive has helped reduce the figure of unemployed older workers and generally to overall number of unemployed Australians.
Notably, the increase in pension package has been set at 67 years of age commencing the year 2025 by the Australian Government (Chang, 2016) However, most Australian employers are letting go of older workers who then find it hard to get back on the employment wagon due to various reasons. In the recent past, western Australia has experienced low unemployment rates which has been attributed to an export driven business perspective(Trigger,2017)Noteworthy ,Western Australia has an employment rate of 1.3m as at March this year. Nine thousand and eighteen of the total number of employed persons is under full-time employment with thirty-six percent of the total employed persons being female.
The creation of more employment opportunities by both the Australian government and the private sector will go a long way in reducing unemployment figures in Australian States .The government could offer grants and subsidies to support ailing industries pick up and sustain themselves .Revival of declined industries will go a long way in providing employment opportunities for the Australian population while increasing government revenue through taxation. Also, the availability of credit facilities for investors to start and expand their businesses will keep the business ventures afloat thereby employing the unemployed Australian labor force. Further, tax incentives, friendly working environment and other benefits will lure more investments hence more jobs.
Additionally, favorable labor policies and wages are likely to motivate the unemployed to seek employment opportunities especially in the case of voluntary unemployment. Favorable working arrangements and conducive and healthy working environments will boost employment levels in Australia.Further,discrimination against older workers ought to have serious consequences for employers through government legislation against workplace discrimination based on race,gender,or age and other personal differences will encourage collective and equal employment opportunities for all Australia .In addition, there ought to immigration laws to protect job market for Australia as opposed to cheap immigrant labor.
Also, monetary and fiscal policy implementation to boost aggregate demand and tax incentives respectively will boost investments into the different sector of the Australian economy thereby creating employment opportunities. Moreover, the existence of schooled labor force through training and education will increase employability chances of most of the Australian Population. Further the implementation of average wages to decrease voluntary unemployment (Pettinger, 2016) Flexibility of working others will accord part-time employment instead of total unemployment. In addition, targeted programs, placement employment and agencies should be availed to the Australian population to minimize frictional and overall unemployment rates (Borland, 2014) Moreover, partnerships should be forged between education and corporate world to prepare the youth for the labor market.
Conclusion
Unemployment is a challenge for most economies and Australia is no exception .Following the mining boom, the unemployment rates in went down. However with the end of the mining boom and the global financial crisis, unemployment rates have gone high. Cyclical, structural and frictional unemployment have befallen Australia .The youth and the older population form part of the unemployed population .Moreover, there’s an underemployment problem in Australia.. Unemployment has been fuelled by decline of automotive and mining and other industries, shortage of skills and discrimination of older workers among other factors. Despite these challenges the Australian government has mitigated measures and policies to eradicate recent high unemployment levels in Australia for the past five years
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