An unfair Australia?: mapping youth unemployment hotspots

The story of youth employment has become a tale of two Australias. Amid more than 20 years of overall economic growth, youth unemployment is rife in some communities, and geography is helping shape a young person's destiny. While some parts of the nation offer young people abundant opportunity, in other areas Australia's young job hunters are struggling for their chance. A headline national youth unemployment rate of 12.2 per cent - which continues at more than double the rate of overall unemployment - masks striking locational differences. In five regions, all outside capital cities, unemployment among 15 to 24 year olds in the labour force exceeds 20 per cent. Youth unemployment is at its extreme - more than 65 per cent - in a thinly populated but vast tract of land in the Queensland outback, encompassing Cape York as well as the mining centres of Mount Isa and Weipa. This report maps youth unemployment trends, zeroing in on 12-month averages to identify 20 'hotspots' that have the highest youth unemployment rates in Australia. Comparing their current youth unemployment rates with two years ago reveals that in all but one of those hotspot regions youth unemployment had worsened. Conversely, in the 20 regions with the lowest youth unemployment rates in 2018, all but two recorded lower rates today than two years ago.

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