Fed: Third of jobless eschew Centrelink in job hunt

AAP General News (Australia)
12-22-1999
Fed: Third of jobless eschew Centrelink in job hunt

CANBERRA, Dec 22 AAP - More than one-third of unemployed people are now choosing not
to use government agencies in their hunt for a job, a survey released today showed.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) survey on the experiences of job seekers
found only 65 per cent of the unemployed were registered with the government services
provider Centrelink.

This continued a steady decline in registration with the Commonwealth Employment Service
(CES) or Centrelink from a high of 83 per cent in July 1993.

Of the unemployed looking for full-time work, about three in four were registered with
Centrelink.

The most common active step taken by those looking for part-time work (20 per cent)
was contacting prospective employers without registering with Centrelink.

The survey also showed nearly half the unemployed people aged over 45 found being told
they were too old by employers was the main obstacle to finding work.

And being considered too young or too old by employers was the most commonly reported
difficulty (15 per cent of respondents) for unemployed people.

Unemployed people who reported being considered too young or too old by employers were
generally long-term jobless, with an average period out of work of 52 weeks.

The problems of mature-aged workers looking for jobs are currently being looked into
by a federal parliamentary committee.

Other most commonly reported difficulties were:

* too many applicants for available jobs (12 per cent);

* lacked necessary skills or education (11 per cent);

* insufficient work experience (10 per cent); and

* no vacancies at all (10 per cent).

The survey found there were 591,000 unemployed people in July.

AAP dep/jg/arb

KEYWORD: JOBS CENTRELINK

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