Keen to work, a million lost in the system

[rooboy]

Almost 1.2 million jobless people want to work but are not recorded in official unemployment figures, while Australian businesses say they cannot find enough workers.

The hidden jobless pool - many of whom are kept out of work by obstacles such as inadequate child care or because they are considered by employers to be "too old" - has barely improved since the Government was elected in 1996, despite the official jobless rate plunging to a 28-year low of 5.1 per cent.

The jobless rate would be as high as 14.8 per cent if these hidden unemployed were counted in official statistics.

Business groups and the Government seized on yesterday's figures to press the case for further industrial relations reform and smaller minimum wage rises. The Workplace Relations Minister, Kevin Andrews, said high minimum wages would cost jobs.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Keen-to-work-a-million-lost-in-the-system/2005/03/11/1110417692384.html

[foreigncorrespondent]

1. Yeah...

high minimum wages would cost jobs

...and low minimum wages would cost the survival of families! Bloody idiots, the lot of them!

Thanks for posting this rooboy!

[Esra Star]

2. Lies, damned lies, and then there's statistics

out there in a class on their own.
My understanding is that if a person is in paid
employment for 1 hour per week, they don't
count as unemployed.
That means that the underemployment rate could be
25 percent or even higher.