NATION Unstable incomes taking mental toll
UNDEREMPLOYED Australians are not just struggling to pay the bills, but are having trouble landing home loans and deferring starting families.
While unemployment may be under control at about 5.4 per cent nationally, underemployment is sitting at about 8.4 per cent, having not fallen below 5.9 per cent since the early 1990s.
Almost a million Australians worked casually or part time in 2017 and wanted – or needed – more hours than they were being given, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reveals. This was almost 100,000 more than four years earlier.
Of Australia’s underemployed workers, women ( 63 per cent), people caring for their own children ( 33 per cent), young people aged 18 to 24 ( 24 per cent) and workers in the community and personal services industry ( 22 per cent) were disproportionately represented.
David Chalke, social analyst and principal p of The he Strate Strategy DADS are more stres stressed d out t than h mums when a baby is premature and needs neonatal intensive care.
For the first time, scientists have studied the psychological impact on fathers after the birth of lowbirth weight, premmie babies and discovered that the pressure on the men to be the family “rock” caused their cortisol levels to soar.
The research, published in the Journal of Perinatal and Neonatal Nursing, focused on the transition period between leaving intensive care and bringing the child home. Fathers experienced an increase in their stress levels while mothers’ stress levels stayed constant.
Oliver Gabath ( pictured) was a premature baby and spent a month in a neonatal unit.
“It was very difficult for my husband Anton as I was able to stay with Oliver at the hospital when he was very ill but Anton had to go home and look after the dogs and continue to run his business,” mum Bridie Gabath said. Planning Group, said the trend was having both financial and social effects.
“If you haven’t got a stable income and you are getting credit with banks, you will end up paying premium rates,” Mr Chalke said.
“A combination of underemployment and other social factors has changed the age of people coupling ( and starting families).
“There is a deferment. If you are not feeling financially secure you don’t want to run the risk of losing one income if one of the partners needs to mind the kids.”
Mr Chalke said Australians had rising concerns about their financial future and this was affecting mental wellbeing.
“The economic equation is easy to see but it’s the emotional equation that is much harder because people gain so much satisfaction, reward and sustenance from work and you can’t replace that easily. You can’t just bump up welfare to replace that,” he said.
“We are in a period of massive transition away from com- munities with physical location towards communities of identity and often they are based on the web. In some ways, that makes work even more important because if you lose the physical contact of the local sports club or Scouts, they are not fully replaced by Facebook or Instagram.”
The ABS figures showed about 995,800 Australians worked less than 35 hours a week and wanted more hours but another 2.5 million were in the same situation yet happy with their hours.