The Problem of Youth Unemployment

Introduction

Youth unemployment is a term used for people between the ages of 15-19, that do not attend school or tertiary level and don't have any form of paid job. There are reasons causing this growing problem. These being; employers not wanting inexperienced woorkers, the low rate of pay and the transition period from education to the work force after the completion of year 12.

Fortunately, there are a vast majority of "youth friendly industries". This implies that, when certain companies are labelled a "youth friendly industry" not only do they employ trained adults but also the inexperienced youth of society. To further develop skills and decline the rate of early school leavers, the government has intervened to counteract this situation in a few ways. Three of the most popular programs are;

Aus Study Payments,

VET courses and facilities to train people undergoing transition from schooling to work.

Why youth are unemployed

To increase production and sales, employers often seek workers that are more experienced. This limits the youth to a small portion of jobs. Due to their inexperience and lack of knowledge, employers do not want to spend money and time training them. But in other cases where firms accept inexperience, the pay tends to be very low, which doesn't attract them from working. The inexperienced youth pay rates range from $5-$10 per hour. But alarmingly, in part-time work the most employable age is between 15-19 years of age holding 28% of males working part-time. The employers see them as less efficient and less valuable so their pay is legally less. In some circumstances you will find that companies employ allot of the youth population, thus they can cut back on their total amount of wages they owe and earn larger profits.

There are, in some cases, firms that employ young and inexperienced workers, as mentioned before they are usually known as "youth friendly industries". Industries such as McDonalds, Coles/Myer, Safeway/Woolworths and KFC just to name a few, are the leading retail and takeaway outlets employing youth. Not only do they employ them but they provide them with the essential training to perform their duties with maximum efficiency. Some people see working as an obstacle towards school and homework and others don't want to work for ridiculously low pay. In conjunction with a high youth unemployment rate the government has introduced schemes to counteract this problem and to keep the youth population in school and out of the workforce.