Youth labour market continues to deteriorate

By Leith van Onselen

Last week’s ABS labour force release for July revealed a further deterioration in trend unemployment for those aged 15 to 24 years old, with unemployment rising for the sixth consecutive month to 13.0%, versus 4.2% 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 had been more or less negative since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), whilst the rest of the labour force has experienced positive growth. However, from December 2014 employment growth turned positive, although it has deteriorated sharply recently (see next chart).