Job search tough for school leavers

By Amos Aikman   

If it were not for a family connection, school leaver Anthony Cowper, like 246,000 other Australians his age, would be unemployed.

Mr Cowper, 18, who finished high school recently, found a hotel job through a family friend. But he is the only one of his friends to have been so lucky.

He said yesterday that only one in 10 of his friends had found paid work since leaving school, even though all had been looking.

“Just fresh out of school, with no experience and no skills, it’s pretty hard,” he said.

Mr Cowper said the only jobs available to school leavers were bar jobs, and even those were hard to come by.

“One of my friends was telling me he had handed his RSA (Responsible Service of Alcohol certificate) into about 10 pubs and didn’t hear back from any of them,” he said.

Mr Cowper’s comments echo the findings of the latest How Young People are Faring report, released today by the Foundation for Young Australians.

The study showed young Australians were hit particularly hard by the global financial crisis and continued to suffer, even though the economy had recovered.

The number of teenagers not in full-time work or education – 246,000, or roughly 16 per cent – remains as high now as in last year, when it spiked through the global economic downturn, the report showed.

Unemployment rates among teenage males not in full-time education rose from 18 per cent last year to almost 19 per cent this year. By comparison, the adult unemployment rate is just 5 per cent, averaged nationally.

FYA director of research Lucas Walsh said teenage males had fared particularly badly.

“This group of young people, such as those in apprenticeships, are particularly vulnerable and are the first to go in times of economic hardship,” Dr Walsh said.

The number of teenagers starting apprenticeships and traineeships dropped by more than 15,000 between 2008 and last year, with more than two-thirds of the losses from male-dominated trade organisations, the report showed.

Dr Walsh said it could take up to 15 years for the teenage unemployment rate to recover from a recession.

Meanwhile, Mr Cowper remained grateful to his family for keeping him off the dole.

“If I hadn’t had a family connection, I would still be looking now,” he said.

Article from The Australian, November 23, 2010.