Updated
Youth unemployment in Australia is stagnating at levels not seen this century and is at crisis point in outback Queensland.
Key points:
- The highest youth unemployment rate is in far north Queensland
- Coffs Harbour-Grafton, Wide Bay, Moreton Bay and Bendigo also have very high youth jobless rates
- Nationally, the youth unemployment rate remains more than twice as high as the overall jobless rate
Analysis of official data by the Brotherhood of St Laurence shows a youth jobless rate of 25.7 per cent in Cape York, Weipa, Mount Isa and Longreach, which is more than double the official rate of 11.2 per cent for people aged between 15 and 25 across Australia as a whole.
The Anglicare-associated charity crunched Bureau of Statistics data to map the top 20 hotspots where youth unemployment has become a critical social issue, in defiance of the overall seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 5 per cent which remained steady in January.
Other regions with critical youth unemployment problems include the Coffs Harbour-Grafton region on the NSW north coast (23.3 per cent); Queensland's Wide Bay region (19.8 per cent); Moreton Bay in Queensland (18.8 per cent) and Bendigo in regional Victoria (18.3 per cent).
Brotherhood of St Laurence executive director Conny Lenneberg told the ABC's AM program that, with more than 250,000 young Australians out of work, the benefits from 28 years of unbroken economic growth are not being felt by the entire population.
"It's devastating that people who come out of school, excited about moving into adulthood and finding a way to be independent, face these incredible barriers," Ms Lenneberg said.
"Increasingly, where you live in Australia defines the opportunities that you have and we really need a different kind of approach to make sure that these young people do not miss out on the prosperity dividend."Ms Lenneberg said, in the leadup to the federal election, both major political parties need to develop solutions rather than focus on the headline overall jobless rate of 5 per cent, which is regarded by most economists as close to "full employment".
"It's a great achievement to be bringing down the unemployment rate to these kind of levels but we do need to bring into view that there are groups who are systematically missing out on the 28 years of prosperity that we've seen recently," she added.
The report titled "Smashing the Avocado Debate" observed that young people are too often depicted in simplistic terms as "consumers of overpriced smashed avocado toast with a fascination for selfies".
"That's plain wrong. These stereotypes are very unfair to young people who are trying very hard to get a job," Ms Lenneberg said.
"As a nation, it's incumbent on us to ensure they don't keep hitting the brick wall.
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"But they're not optimistic if month after month, and sometimes year after year, they're finding no way into sustainable employment."
Brotherhood of St Laurence is advocating more effective transition to work programs in regional areas and greater decentralisation of industry to help local economies to create more opportunities.
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