It can’t be said enough, amid a steady rise in the overall unemployment rate, Australia’s youth continue to bear the brunt – and teenagers are faring worst of all.
More than 290,000 Australian youth aged 15 to 24 were categorised as unemploy in January. The worst hit were the 15 to 19 year olds, with the unemployment rate for this group hitting 20 per cent – a level not seen since the mid 1990s. Nearly 160,000 Australians aged 15 to 19 were unemployed in January, out of an overall pool of more than 780,000 unemployed. This means one in five unemployed Australians today is a teenager.’ (Brotherhood of St Laurence Report, March 2015)