Jobs for the boys? Never been truer

Unemployment for women in greater Hobart is growing, writes Ella Haddad

WHEN a member of the public complained to me that Will Hodgman and the State Government “only care about jobs for the boys”, I didn’t think she meant it literally.

Yet the most recent data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows the unemployment rate for women in greater Hobart has risen to 7.4 per cent. This is 55 per cent above the rate in Victoria, 75 per cent above the Northern Territory and 130 per cent more than the ACT.

One in 14 Tasmanian women who had a full-time job last year no longer do.

Since the election 6500 full-time jobs had been lost, spanning admin, healthcare and social assistance.

While the statistics are shocking, the real-life consequences for women who find themselves out of work are heart breaking.

Unemployment is demoralising.

It means a loss of financial independence. It can trap people in unhappy or worse, dangerous relationships.

It means clinging to hope after spending two days writing the best application you can and being disappointed when an interview panel said you could expect to hear from them and you don’t.

Unemployment is the pang you feel when someone asks you what you’ve been up to lately. It’s the embarrassment you feel when someone you meet for the first time asks what you do with yourself. It’s not your fault but sometimes it’s hard not to feel that way.

Unemployment means making excuses about why you can’t see your friends, because you’ve got no money to go to dinner. It means after a while people just stop asking.

Unemployment means being an adult but having to ask your parents for a loan. It means knowing exactly how much you’ve got left in your bank account and keeping a mental tally as you walk through the supermarket.

Unemployment means going to housewarming parties or hearing about your friends’ holidays and knowing those things are completely out of the question for you.

Most of all unemployment means poverty. Newstart Allowance is just $43 a day for a single woman with children. The average rent in Hobart is more than $60 per day. Unemployment means there’s no way to make the sums work, let alone food, power, transport and medical costs.

On average, it means all these things for one year and four months. According to the ABS, the average length of a job search in Tasmania has risen to 70.9 weeks and is now well above the national average of 48.9 weeks.

Many women find themselves stuck on Newstart much longer than this. Tasmania has the highest rate of long-term unemployment.

This is a crisis the Government cannot ignore any longer, because a failing jobs market doesn’t just affect people who can’t find a job.

Instead of cutting jobs entirely, many employers, particularly small businesses, will try to do right by their staff when times are tough. They’ll keep them on but with reduced hours.

The result is that underemployment for women in Tasmania is now up to 13.3 per cent. That’s 21,429 Tasmanian women who aren’t getting enough hours to cover the basics.

If you’re only getting a couple of hours a week, the Government’s statistics consider you employed.

But four hours a fortnight isn’t enough to pay your rent, to put food on your family’s table, to register your car and fill it with petrol, or to heat your home in winter.

The state of Hobart’s deteriorating job market also means people have to stay in jobs for which their skills aren’t suited or for which they are over-qualified.

Declining job opportunities increase the likelihood and prevalence of gender inequality. It is no coincidence that the decades in which we have seen the greatest gains in social and political equality have occurred at a time when women have more economic power than ever before.

The Government must take this issue seriously. It’s no longer good enough to fudge the numbers or criticise the Opposition.

It’s certainly cruel to propose cutting about 2000 jobs from the public service over the next four years.