Generation stalled: young, underemployed and living precariously in Australia

Along with high rates of youth unemployment, young Australians are also negotiating the threat posed by underemployment, which has now become an entrenched feature of the youth labour market. Precarious employment is hindering the capacity of many young people, especially those without qualifications and skills, to build satisfying and productive adult lives, as the pathways that were open to their parents appear to have stalled. This analysis, drawing on data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey,...  [+] Show more

Along with high rates of youth unemployment, young Australians are also negotiating the threat posed by underemployment, which has now become an entrenched feature of the youth labour market. Precarious employment is hindering the capacity of many young people, especially those without qualifications and skills, to build satisfying and productive adult lives, as the pathways that were open to their parents appear to have stalled.

This analysis, drawing on data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, confirms disturbing trends: (1) underemployment, at 18 per cent of the youth labour force (February 2017), is the highest in the 40 years since the count officially began; the challenge now affects even more young people than unemployment, currently at 13.5 per cent; (2) young people are far more likely to be in casual and part-time jobs than at the beginning of this millennium; (3) in the past 15 years the average gap has widened between the actual working hours of young underemployed people and the hours they would like to work; and (4) the growing number of young people combining study with work does not explain the rise in underemployment, as the rise in the percentage of casual and part-time jobs has mostly been among young workers who are not studying.

Edited excerpts from publisher's website.