Part-time jobs may trap young workers, report finds

IN 2018, young Australians are far more likely to work part-time than 40 years ago, according to new analysis by the national anti-poverty group Brotherhood of St Laurence for its latest Youth Unemployment Monitor, released earlier this month.

For tens of thousands of young Australians, their first “real” job is likely to be a “survival job”.

The report, titled “Part-time purgatory”, lays out the employment challenges facing today’s young adults compared to previous generations, finding that more than 550,000 young people aged 20 to 24 are working part-time today.

However, this change is not because all young part-time workers are otherwise engaged in fulltime study.

More than 260,000 young people aged 20 to 24 who were not in full-time study had a job but only worked part-time.

The report, citing Australian Bureau of Statistics data, states the trend towards part-time work for young people was fuelling high rates of youth underemployment (when a person secures some work but wants more hours).

Both youth unemployment and underemployment need to be considered to gain an accurate picture of how young people were faring in Australia’s labour market, brotherhood executive director Conny Lenneberg said.

“Young Australians today face job challenges their parents and grandparents simply could not have imagined. The combination of stubbornly high youth underemployment (18 percent) and unemployment (11.2 percent) poses enormous risks, especially for young people experiencing disadvantage.

“Australia has entered its 28th year of uninterrupted economic growth, but the prosperity dividend has not been shared fairly with our young generation and they face many new uncertainties.

“As a nation, we must intensify our efforts to tackle this deep challenge, and as a start, policymakers should move to offer all job hunters aged 15 to 25 a specialist youth employment service rather than the nation’s current fragmented response.”