Work cut out for young

IT IS harder now for young people to find a job in their desired industry than it was 12 years ago – a phenomenon expected to worsen in the COVID-19 downturn.

A new report from the Productivity Commission found young Aussies could suffer long-term effects on their careers and wages.

Productivity commissioner Catherine de Fontenay said the massive numbers of people getting university degrees now made it even harder for people to get the jobs they wanted.

“We’ve seen substantial increases in university graduates in Australia over the last 10 years or so,” she said. “For many graduates that has just meant more competition to enter their chosen profession.”

The report found that after 2008, young people’s job prospects and salary growth were worse than those of workers aged 35 years and over and compared to young people prior to 2008.

The paper found the weak labour market from 2008 to 2018 was reflected primarily in young workers finding lowerscored occupations and earning lower wage rates than earlier generations.

“Movement down the jobs ladder has negative implications for the lifetime earnings of those young workers, and possibly for their work satisfaction,” the report stated.

“It also has implications for young people with low educational attainment, as they face competition from young people with more education.

“Some young people were pushed ‘off the ladder’, as indicated by the rise in long-run unemployment.”

It also found that the fact the unemployment rate did not rise sharply suggested certain segments of the labour market had more flexibility to absorb additional workers, possibly at lower wages.