Even the government’s pledge of 1.3 million extra jobs might not be enough to keep unemployment below 4%. The pledge ought to be the unemployment rate itself.
Universities shouldn’t only attend to the knowledge and skills graduates need for work but also the factors that give graduates a better chance of earning a living and participating in society.
Graduate students have much to offer the non-academic workforce based on critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Universities need to help them articulate these skills for employers.
India’s youths, an eighth of the world’s population, are facing a growing unemployment crisis. Australia must engage with this global demographic, for our own benefit and theirs.
The government claims university degrees are failing businesses, but analysis of the latest graduate outcome and employer satisfaction surveys tells us the problem is with underemployment.
Big Issue sellers get social contact and dignity out of their work, but it’s not a secure pathway out of poverty and homelessness. Social enterprises enable small steps; governments can do much more.
Focusing on the gender wage gap means we don’t address increasing insecure work. Women face both higher unemployment and underemployment rates than men.