Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Matt Hepworth spoke with Anglicare Australia Executive Director Kasy Chambers

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Matt Hepworth spoke with Anglicare Australia Executive Director Kasy Chambers · 360 with Katie Woolf

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Speaker 1: When your research shows there's fierce competition for job seekers
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Speaker 1: applying for low skilled vacancies. The latest jobs availability snapshot
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Speaker 1: from Anglicare Australia reveals there are at least six job
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Speaker 1: seekers competing for every low skilled job vacancy across the
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Speaker 1: Northern Territory. It also reveals more people with barriers to
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Speaker 1: work such as age, education and disabilities. We're competing with
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Speaker 1: fewer jobs. To talk more about, this is the Anglicicare
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Speaker 1: Australia Executive director, Casey Chambers. Casey, good morning, Good morning Matt.
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Speaker 2: How are you very well?
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Speaker 1: Thank you, Casey. Can you tell us a little bit
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Speaker 1: more about this report and what it means for the
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Speaker 1: Northern Territory.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, sure, but we do this report every year, but
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Speaker 2: you know it really is incredibly important this yearly we're
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Speaker 2: trying to do. We all hear these numbers. You know,
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Speaker 2: it's gone up, it's gone down there all this happening.
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Speaker 2: There's a lot of movement we've heard since we you know,
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Speaker 2: just shyesterday the unemployment numbers now ship gone up again.
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Speaker 2: So they're big numbers. And what we're trying to do
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Speaker 2: is actually dig down and have a look at what
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Speaker 2: it's like for those people, you know, the people you
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Speaker 2: talked about in your introduction, kids who've left school without
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Speaker 2: you know, a year twelve and haven't been able to
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Speaker 2: get experience all the workers, people with the disability, people
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Speaker 2: who don't have English the first language, people who live
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Speaker 2: somewhere where there aren't that many jobs around. So you know,
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Speaker 2: we really wanted to have a look for those people.
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Speaker 2: So we we look at the number of people in
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Speaker 2: that kind of category, and we look at the number
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Speaker 2: of jobs where you know, they don't need a tertiary
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Speaker 2: qualification and most of the training is on the job,
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Speaker 2: and some of them become very skilled jobs, you know,
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Speaker 2: care jobs or even security and the hospitality, but they
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Speaker 2: can start at that level and that's where we get that,
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Speaker 2: you know, for that group of people and that group
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Speaker 2: of jobs. Yep, you're right. In the Northern Territory, there's
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Speaker 2: six point two people looking for each one of those jobs,
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Speaker 2: and that has gone up since last year. You can
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Speaker 2: thank your look at Stars. You're not Tasmania though, because
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Speaker 2: they've got twenty one people for every one of those jobs.
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Speaker 2: But yeah, the other thing we should never forget is that,
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Speaker 2: particularly at the moment when we're in this recession, we've
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Speaker 2: got people out of work all the other types of jobs.
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Speaker 2: The government, by the way, called these level five jobs.
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Speaker 2: So we've got people out of work and being laid
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Speaker 2: off in levels one, two, three, and four jobs, and
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Speaker 2: of course they can compete for these jobs as well.
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Speaker 2: And when we do that figure across the nation, that's
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Speaker 2: one hundred and six jobs because for every one of
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Speaker 2: these entry level jobs. So what we're saying is it's
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Speaker 2: a very difficult situation for anybody who's unemployed, but especially
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Speaker 2: for these people who've got these additional barriers. And yeah,
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Speaker 2: we see a lot of churn, We see a lot
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Speaker 2: of people, you know, who are coming from those other
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Speaker 2: levels picking up these level five jobs. And of course
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Speaker 2: the folk we're interested in can miss out for a
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Speaker 2: long time, and that in itself that it's a vicious circle.
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Speaker 2: But the research clearly shows the longer you are unemployed,
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Speaker 2: the harder it is to this a job. And the
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Speaker 2: people that we're talking about here typically spend five years
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Speaker 2: plus on unemployment compared to people who bounce through more quickly.
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Speaker 1: Casie. When we talk about low skilled jobs, I always
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Speaker 1: find the term very interesting because obviously made reference to
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Speaker 1: you know before as to people that you know might
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Speaker 1: be able to apply for a low skilled job. But
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Speaker 1: every job in itself does require a skill. I mean
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Speaker 1: we might class something as simple as you know, being
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Speaker 1: a shelf packer at a supermarket low skilled, but that
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Speaker 1: in itself does obviously require some skills and training, and
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Speaker 1: as you mentioned before, you can actually go on to
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Speaker 1: you know, have quite a skilled career within retail.
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Speaker 2: That's right, And that's why i'm you know, I'm resisting
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Speaker 2: sort of calling them anything other than, you know, trying
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Speaker 2: to use that that term that the government uses, which
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Speaker 2: is level five. The reason we look at these jobs
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Speaker 2: is they don't require a tertiary qualification and they don't
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Speaker 2: say you've got to have seven years in the similar
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Speaker 2: industry or something, so the training is often on the job.
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Speaker 2: But you're right, they require huge skills. I mean, how
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Speaker 2: many times have we all asked that shelf packer for assistance?
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Speaker 2: How many times is that shelf packer the person who
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Speaker 2: might be dealing with somebody in a security situation, who
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Speaker 2: might be having a mental health episode in a supermarket
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Speaker 2: late at night. You know, there's heaps of skills, and
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Speaker 2: I've been surprised as we've done this research, some of
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Speaker 2: the jobs that are counted as level five. So this
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Speaker 2: entry level job security at the airport, is that that
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Speaker 2: retail person who's assisting you with something hospitality. You know,
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Speaker 2: we all love going for our coffees and our and
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Speaker 2: our cafes and things. A lot of those jobs are
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Speaker 2: entry level. But what it does mean is certainly, yes,
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Speaker 2: you might start with a cleaning firm with just some
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Speaker 2: quick on the job sort of you know, instruction, but
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Speaker 2: you might take that role somewhere. You might become a
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Speaker 2: specialist cleaner. You might become a cleaner in an age
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Speaker 2: care facility where the additional skills of interacting with folk.
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Speaker 2: So yeah, you know, certainly a lot of these so
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Speaker 2: called entry level jobs they do lead somewhere. And one
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Speaker 2: of the things we've been saying to employers as well
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Speaker 2: as sometimes particularly the next level up of jobs, they
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Speaker 2: seem to make them more complex unnecessarily, and that means
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Speaker 2: that they're missing out on what may be some great people.
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Speaker 2: I think we've all seen that time where it says,
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Speaker 2: you know, driving license required or something like that, and
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Speaker 2: it turns out you never do drive in that job.
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Speaker 2: So you know, The jobs are getting more complex, there's
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Speaker 2: no doubt about that. But some of it is due
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Speaker 2: to the fact that, yeah, I think employers they know
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Speaker 2: what market they're in, so they can ask for something
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Speaker 2: a bit more complex.
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Speaker 1: Okay, See in the recent federal budget we saw new
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Speaker 1: employment incentives to hire young people. What is this going
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Speaker 1: to make the job market like for young people? Obviously
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Speaker 1: it's you know, incentives are good, but what about those
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Speaker 1: older Australians. I think over over thirty five.
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Speaker 2: It's a bit of a shock to be called older
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Speaker 2: when you're older over thirty five, Although thirty six year
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Speaker 2: olds out there this morning knowing that they're older around workers. Look,
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Speaker 2: we do think that it's a pretty good thing, you know,
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Speaker 2: the job, the job hiring of younger people. It is
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Speaker 2: a difficult thing. You know, We've all had it when
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Speaker 2: we've been young, and I'm sure there's people listening who
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Speaker 2: are told come back when you've got some experience. We
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Speaker 2: can't get experience, so you've got a job and you
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Speaker 2: can't get a job to you've got experience. So it
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Speaker 2: should hopefully hammer through there. And of course if you're
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Speaker 2: someone of twenty five, you've got longer in the workforce
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Speaker 2: between now and your retirement. So doing something at that
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Speaker 2: end can it can be a greater leave in a way.
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Speaker 2: But we are very very concerned about older workers. If
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Speaker 2: you're somebody at a lower paid job or that you've
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Speaker 2: lost your job and you're fifty eight, late fifties or
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Speaker 2: early sixties, you've got that decade to really settle your
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Speaker 2: situation before you you know, you come up, you retire,
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Speaker 2: and if you're retiring from unemployment, then that happens at
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Speaker 2: sixty five when you move onto the age pension. But
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Speaker 2: you know, we see people lose a lot in those
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Speaker 2: in that last decade if they fall out of work.
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Speaker 2: You know, they can be in the private rental market
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Speaker 2: because they've had to sell a house, or the old
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Speaker 2: rated new start was so low that you know, forty
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Speaker 2: dollars a day, people were needing to sell things, borrow,
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Speaker 2: you know, the just exercise every little bit of resource
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Speaker 2: and resilience they had, and so by the time they
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Speaker 2: get to that age pension, they're not in a great
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Speaker 2: situation to then, you know, enjoy the rest of their retirement.
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Speaker 2: And so there is a huge concern there and certainly
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Speaker 2: we hear we've heard when we were doing this report
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Speaker 2: from a number of people in their late fifties and
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Speaker 2: early sixties who told us that their job active provider
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Speaker 2: had said to them, naw, you want get another job
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Speaker 2: and so and yet we're still asking those people or
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Speaker 2: to jump through you know, the job active hoops for.
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Speaker 2: If we're saying in that situation, maybe we should just
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Speaker 2: be recognizing that there is a broader way to contribute
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Speaker 2: to your community and participate in society than a straight
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Speaker 2: economic job. You know, our volunteers. We have about nineteen
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Speaker 2: thousand volunteers around the country through Anglicare, and they are
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Speaker 2: typically older people. They're typically sixty plus. And this country
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Speaker 2: wouldn't run without our volunteers.
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Speaker 1: Yeah. Just finally, Casey, what's your message to the government
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Speaker 1: and employers when it comes to employment in the Northern
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Speaker 1: Territory right now?
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Speaker 2: Look, I think you know, employers, a lot of the
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Speaker 2: measures in last week's budget it is still last weeks,
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Speaker 2: isn't it. Since a long time ago, a lot of
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Speaker 2: them were you know, really based on businesses and employers
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Speaker 2: having some confidence that things were going to improve. So,
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Speaker 2: you know, you'd need to have the confidence that things
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Speaker 2: are going to get better to put somebody new on,
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Speaker 2: so you know, we were hoping that that business does
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Speaker 2: have that confidence. We would really be saying, let's let's
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Speaker 2: you know, if there's somebody who you can give or
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Speaker 2: go to the then do that. That's that's great, but
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Speaker 2: don't forget that. You know, people who do have these
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Speaker 2: additional barriers. They I don't want to generalize, you know
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Speaker 2: that they can often be great workers. And I would
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Speaker 2: also be saying, certainly to the government, we were very
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Speaker 2: disappointed at angler care to see the recovery in the budget.
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Speaker 2: You know that trillion dollars. I can't even think how
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Speaker 2: many zeros that is, but that trillion dollars was really
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Speaker 2: all eggs in one basket. It was all through the
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Speaker 2: private sector. And I think what missed out there was,
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Speaker 2: you know that we've got a great set of care
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Speaker 2: jobs out there. We know that we could increase the
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Speaker 2: number of careers in age care tomorrow and we would
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Speaker 2: have you know, better quality of care for all the people.
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Speaker 2: Everything would be it ticks all the boxes, and some
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Speaker 2: of those jobs can be entry level to begin with,
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Speaker 2: and people can start a really great career through those
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Speaker 2: kind of industries. So we would be really saying, here,
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Speaker 2: no eggs all in one basket. Let's look beyond the
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Speaker 2: private sector. Let's look at some care lead recovery jobs
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Speaker 2: and let's think about that how those can actually add
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Speaker 2: to the quality of life right across the territory, not
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Speaker 2: just on that road building project, but actually in every community,
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Speaker 2: every suburb.
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Speaker 1: Great advice, Casey Chambers, the Anglicicare Australia executive Director. We'll
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Speaker 1: have to leave it there. Thank you so much for
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Speaker 1: taking the time to chat to us this morning.
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Speaker 2: Thanks so much for having me on that