Australia’s youth unemployment worsens

By Leith van Onselen

In the fog of yesterday’s dubious employment numbers, which showed the biggest monthly jobs gain in recorded history, there was a more important story that went unnoticed: the ongoing plight of Australia’s youth, whereby unemployment for those aged 15 to 24 years old rose to 13.8% in trend terms (from July’s revised 13.7%) – the highest youth unemployment rate since November 2001.

As you can see in the next chart, total employment growth for those aged 15-24 years of age has been more or less negative since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), whilst the rest of the labour force has experienced positive growth (see next chart).