Page 883 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 30 March 1993
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Ms Ellis also asked about the month to month fall in the numbers of unemployed young people, which appear to fly in the face of a slight increase in the rate of unemployment. The detailed figures are yet to be released by the Bureau of Statistics, but it does appear that the fall and the increase in the rate came about because of a very significant decrease - about 1,500 - in the number of teenagers in the full-time labour force. That is most likely as a result of teenagers leaving the labour force at the beginning of the school or college year to go back to full-time education. The position is further complicated by the fact that some of those teenagers who are registered as seeking full-time employment are actually still in full-time education. So the position is clouded a little.
At the same time, there has been quite a reduction in the teenage full-time labour force participation rate. In fact, that has decreased from 29.3 per cent to 22.4 per cent over the past month. Again, you would expect that people going back to school or back to university account for a large part of that decrease. The monthly fluctuations and the huge fluctuations that occur in the ACT are further compounded by the fact that the Bureau of Statistics survey of the labour force is based on a very small sample. Only one in every 75 households is sampled, so it does tend to make monthly figures pretty volatile and not nearly as reliable as those in some of the bigger States.
Apart from all those statistical problems, there are some underlying difficulties with the unemployment of teenagers in the ACT as compared to other States. I have a large amount of resources devoted to looking at these problems and coming up with solutions. Some of the difficulties that young people face - teenagers in particular - are specific to the ACT. The first one, of course, is the fact that our industry base is not particularly diversified. We do not have a large manufacturing base here. There is also a lot of competition for jobs from older and much more experienced workers and from people who are vocationally qualified for employment. Another factor is that our biggest employer, the Commonwealth Public Service, has undertaken very minimal recruitment of teenagers in recent years, so what used to be a big opportunity for young people in the ACT has very largely dried up over recent years. It is not a straightforward question but it is one to which the Government continues to give its highest priority. It is important to know what it is that we are looking at in those statistics.
Unemployment Statistics
MR STEVENSON: My question is also to the Chief Minister, although I wonder whether I should wait till she finishes chewing. My question is related to unemployment figures as well. I ask how unemployment figures are collated. What is included and what is not? How do the total figures compare with the number of people receiving social security benefits?
MS FOLLETT: I thank Mr Stevenson for the question. It does follow on from the one I have just answered. The unemployment data I have quoted in the past for the ACT are those gathered by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in the course of their monthly review of the labour force. As I have said before, the ABS has a very concise definition of those categorised as unemployed. To put it briefly, the unemployed are those people aged 15 and over who were not in paid employment during the week the survey was carried out, who had actively
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