Reserve Bank officials have admitted that youth unemployment is a "significant concern" in Australia, after rising to the highest level since 1998 but they have cautioned against jumping to conclusions about what the data represents.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Appearing before a House of Representatives committee on Friday, Assistant Governor Christopher Kent said the numbers of young Australians looking for work had jumped in January along with other workers.
Data from the Bureau of Statistics showed that unemployment for people aged 15-24 rose from 13.1 per cent to 14.2 per cent last month — the highest level since April 1998.
And for those aged 15-19, unemployment hit 20.3 per cent.
Those rates are far worse than overall unemployment, which hit 6.4 per cent in January.
"It's certainly a significant concern, the youth unemployment rate amongst 15-19 year olds is pretty high," RBA Assistant governor Christopher Kent said in Friday.
"[But] you want to be careful not to assume that that means 1 in 5 are unemployed. I certainly don't want to diminish the fact that it is very high and rising, [but] we also need to think about some of the reasons why it has risen," he said.
Dr Kent said that a possible explanation for the rise in youth employment was a larger number of people looking for part-time work while they were studying or training.
After the figures were released, Greens Deputy Leader and Employment Spokesperson Adam Bandt MP said youth unemployment was the hidden crisis in the jobs figures and he criticised the federal government for its plans to have young unemployed people spend six months without any income.
"Unemployment has risen to 6.4 per cent nationally but youth unemployment jumped drastically higher to 14.2 per cent," Mr Band said.
"This government wants young unemployed people to spend six months a year without any income while they look for jobs that just aren't there."
"When combined with the attacks on universities and TAFE, we are at risk of leaving a generation unskilled and out of work."
"Jobs growth must now be a budget priority," he said.
Australia's jobless rate jumped from 6.1 to 6.4 per cent in January making it the highest unemployment rate since 2002 and, with 800,000 people now officially out of work, the highest aggregate jobless number since 1994.
