It’s no secret that the Australian job market has been in nosedive mode for a while now. Every month the major job sites publish figures showing that jobs are down three hundred and eighty thousand percent then the previous month and that the Centrelink queues are getting longer and longer.

Not surprisingly Generation Y has been getting a bit of media coverage lately. Silver spoons in mouth, living at home and not having faced a recessional job market, Generation Y is an easy target to go after.

News.com.au seem to have dug up the most ditziest blonde Australian alive and painted her as the representational spokesperson for Generation Y employment.

She’s tried 70 jobs but can’t find work that interests her.

Simone Francis, 25, of Marrickville in Sydney’s inner west, is typical of a generation that jumps from job to job.

Her longest job lasted just a few months, but Ms Francis said she had spent as little as three days in a job before offering her resignation.

“Usually, it takes a week or less than a week,” she said.


Simone is currently on the dole and runs ‘Nomadic Hands’, an organisation dedicated to raising human rights and animal welfare overseas. She is running on the hope that some day Nomadic Hands will lead her to full time employment.

In some ways I can relate to this. Late last year I quit my job after having worked fourteen months with just three sick days and no holidays. I refused to sign another contract and walked out in the big wide world of recession.

Spending close to 20-30 hours a week job hunting in January I decided to start up OzSoapbox in February to give me something stimulating to do whilst job hunting. I too hope that one day it’s something I can do fulltime but I don’t see myself leaving my day job anytime soon.

The difference between me and Simone though is that I’m supporting myself and not sitting around with my hand out. Sure sitting around holding hands and raising human rights awareness might leave you feeling all warm and fuzzy inside but cmon really? How is that going to set you up with a job?

‘Hi I’m Simone, I’m totally for human rights and want to make a difference. Here’s my resume complete with a 70 job history.’

No employer in their right mind is going to take her seriously.

The government has tackled the problem of growing employment in the under 25 bracket by asking generation y job hunters to lower their expectations.

Young job seekers need to be realistic and put their ideal job on hold because of the tough job climate, the Federal Government says.

Employment Participation Minister Mark Arbib, in an address to the young Labor conference in Sydney yesterday, said young people should take a job even if they do not consider it ideal.


A quick look at Jobsearch reveals that the top two job categories for Victoria are ‘Food, Hospitality and Tourism’ followed closely by ‘Labourers, Factory and Machine Workers’. ie. high turn over jobs because employers will work you insane hours until you’re exhausted.

On one hand the government is urging people to take these jobs but on the other Centrelink has never been easier to get on to.

Most young job hunters are caught between the crushing experience that is queuing up at Centrelink every fortnight to hand in your Newstart form, or taking a job that will drain the life out of you and pay slightly higher then Newstart.

Either way it can be a vicious cycle. You either wind up with Centrelink swallowing any self esteem you thought you had or a resume with 70 jobs on it like Simone Francis.

There’s always work out there for the desperate but the real challenge is trying to convince a generation to downgrade their options. For years we’ve been sending them to uni and telling them anyone can reach CEO in just a week.

Against a harsher job climate a lot of people are now realising having dreams is great and everything but doesn’t put food on the table.

What’s worse is that in five to ten years time if this generation haven’t found suitable careers we’re going to see alot of unproductive depressed forty something year olds about.

You can get away with being frivolous when you’re young but it’s not so fun and games as you get on in the years. If I was the government this is what I’d be worrying about. If current trends are anything to go by generation y are in for quite a bleak and depressing 2010-2020.



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