Larvatus Prodeo

The federal government boasts loudly and at length about the low level of unemployment that it claims has been a feature of its term of office.

But too often we read newspaper articles like these:

Rubbery figures hide the real jobless tragedy

Keen to work, a million lost in the system

Both of these reports put the real unemployment figure in the 12-14% range.

And then in today’s Age, Tim Colebatch writes about figures released yesterday by the Bureau of Statistics:

Just 465,000 Australians were officially unemployed, but 322,000 were working less than 15 hours a week and wanted more work - while almost 1 million more were jobless and would like to work, though few were looking.

Why not? Of those not seeking work, one in four were carers, mostly full-time mothers. Another 13 per cent were studying, and 9 per cent were sick, injured or taking a holiday. But 10 per cent said employers saw them as too old, and 8 per cent said there were no suitable jobs.

Among the 627,000 trying to find more work, the problems were sharper. One in three said there were too few jobs or too many applicants. Another 17 per cent said they lacked the skills or experience they needed, and 13 per cent said employers don’t hire people their age.

Surely the unemployment number published by the government is not a true indicator. This is a serious matter and worthy of more attention and I wonder why the ALP is not more determined to call the goverment to account over it.