Employment Minister, Eric Abetz, has acknowledged business’ criticism that its beefed-up “Work-for-the-Dole” program, which would require the unemployed to apply for 40 jobs a month in order to continue to receive benefits, could create a deluge of sham job applications, and has signaled possible changes. From The Guardian:
Abetz emphasised that the government did not want “red tape and inconvenience to employers” and would listen to feedback…
Asked whether there was a risk the 40-application rule would become a box-ticking exercise, with people applying for jobs for which they were not suitable just to reach the target, Abetz said: “I think that is potentially a fair criticism. We as a government do not want box-ticking to take place. We don’t want red tape and inconvenience to employers, but what we do want is a genuine attempt by the job seeker to obtain employment, and with the help of a job service provider, we trust that that will assist them in doubling, redoubling their efforts to obtain employment”…
As a solution, the Government has now threatened job seekers with fines or benefit cuts if they do not undertake genuine attempts to find work. From The Australian:
Jobseekers who do not use a range of job search techniques — or approach a range of would-be employers — will face compliance, said a spokesman for Assistant Minister for Employment Luke Hartsuyker.
This may include financial penalties or payment suspensions…
Unemployed people can use technology to make jobseeking more efficient, but may be penalised if it can be shown that their use of technology is not part of a genuine effort to find work.
Fair enough. But how exactly will the Government differentiate between genuine job seeking attempts and simple ‘box ticking’? And won’t this just create more red tape and increase administration costs? Further, as reported in The Guardian today, “an evaluation in November 2007 of Howard government policies by the then department of education, employment and workplace relations warned that increasing of job application requirements ‘does not appear to have translated into increased employment outcomes'”.
The fundamental problem with Work-for-the-Dole is that it does absolutely nothing to solve the demand-side of job equation. That is, unemployment is high because the domestic economy is weak and labour demand is low. Abetz, however, seems to believe that if you ask, the jobs will magically appear:
“When jobs are sparse, it means that you’ve got to apply for more jobs to get a job… What it actually means is that you’ve got to double and redouble your efforts to be able to attract the attention of an employer to obtain the job that is so beneficial to the job seeker.”
Yet the reality of the situation exposes why such thinking by Abetz is flawed. From The Conversation:
The overall unemployment rate is now 6%, and 13.5% for 15-24 year olds. In May there were 146,000 job vacancies with 720,000 people unemployed. Another 920,000 were underemployed and wanting more hours of work. Underemployment is a very important labour market indicator as, under the terms of internationally agreed labour statistics collection, an individual is counted as employed if working one hour a week for pay or profit.
Altogether, these figures mean 1.64 million people who have no work or not enough work are potentially competing for available job vacancies.
While the labour force underutilisation rate of 13.5% suggests that there are around 10 potential job applicants for each vacancy…
This is the core reality of the Australian job market. The intensification of job search requirements means people receiving Newstart will be coerced into applying for many jobs that they have very little chance of obtaining.
No one suggests that they shouldn’t be doing what they can to find a job, but futile applications for jobs serve no purpose but to tick the boxes to receive a payment.
It sure would be nice to see the Government adopt evidence-based policy for once, rather than politically-motivated gimmicks that have been proven not to work.
Chastising the unemployed through Work-for-the-Dole might make good tabloid copy and appeal to talk back radio listeners, but it does absolutely nothing to solve the unemployment conundrum, which is only likely to get worse and the mining investment boom unwinds and local car assembly shutters.
