AUSTRALIA AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY FACING WORST UNEMPLOYMENT AS MOST AVAILABLE JOBS ARE EITHER LOW PAID OR CASUAL IN NATURE WITH NO FULL TIME JOBS The ACT Government is blaming the territorys rising jobless rate on Federal Government budget cuts, amid concerns young people are being shut out of the workforce. New jobs figures revealed the ACTs unemployment rate rose from 5.1 per cent to 5.4 per cent in October, and has steadily increased since it reached 3.6 per cent in June. It was the fifth month in a row the ACTs unemployment rate has risen. Nationally the unemployment rate held steady at 6.2 per cent. Chief Minister Katy Gallagher has warned that Canberra has copped the brunt of the Federal Governments cost-cutting. On top of what were seeing, a rising unemployment rate, were also seeing a large part of our economy being asked to cop less than CPI (consumer price index) wage outcomes, she said. So its hit after hit after hit thats happening here at the moment, and its unfair and its certainly disproportionate to what is happening in the rest of the country. Message from figures is enough is enough Welfare agencies are worried the jobless rate has forced higher skilled workers to apply for entry level jobs, which has shut young people out of the workforce. Jeremy Halcrow from Anglicare said youth unemployment was well over 15 per cent. Most of the jobs that are out there are very marginal, so low paid, short term, casual, but theres not the jobs that are sustainable for long-term careers, he said. Traffic controller David Griffin has struggled to gain enough work to support himself. This week Ive done probably 12 hours, he said. When youve got to come to places like this (Uniting Care) begging for charity it just belittles yourself. Susan Helyar from the ACT Council of Social Service has warned the jobless rate has created stress in the community. It creates deep uncertainty, so people can only live from week to week literally they dont know how many hours of work theyll get, she said. Ms Gallagher has warned the Federal Government against cutting deeper in the ACT. I think the message from these unemployment figures is enough is enough, she said. Weve got to stop cutting expenditure in Canberra and the Commonwealth Government needs to see that whats happening is a direct result of their policies.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 03:28:42 +0000
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