Youth unemployed ride the bubble

By Leith van Onselen

The housing bubble-induced rebound in the nation’s labour market has done wonders for Australia’s youth unemployed, with the trend unemployment rate for those aged 15 to 24 years old falling for the eleventh consecutive month to 13.3%, versus 4.8% unemployment for the rest of the labour market (see next chart).

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. However, since December 2014, employment growth has turned positive with a strongly improving trend (see next chart).