The head of a community-based charity organisation has criticised the increasing “casualisation” of the workforce and its impact on the Illawarra’s youth.
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As part of the Mercury’s coverage of homelessness, Narelle Clay, CEO of Southern Youth and Family Services said they were seeing increased incidences of young people who are unable to acquire income, either via work or Centrelink.
“Even those that are able to get some work, they’re only getting casual work,” she said. “So it’s short-term, insecure and often doesn’t pay well, and sometimes they’ve got to manage two or three casual jobs at the one time.
“And because it’s insecure they can’t get secure housing, or if they do they eventually get evicted because they can’t get casual work for a few fortnights and then can’t pay the rent.
“I fear for young people, because if you don’t get a job and don’t have stable housing, where do you go as a young person to gain confidence, skills, experience, a work history, mentoring?
“All the things that work and stability give you.”
Ms Clay said this increasing “casualisation” within the workforce is a “critical problem”.
“We hardly see any young people getting secure job contracts or work.
“That’s tragic, because it has a knock-on effect around what happens in the future, what sort of experience and employment record they can show. It means they can’t get loans and they don’t get good records in terms of renting.
“It’s a really shocking situation where somehow this economy has moved more and more to casualisation.”
Ms Clay said the structural problems of a shortage of affordable housing, poverty and lack of employment (both because of unemployment and casualisation) are “absolutely what’s causing people not to be able to get out of homelessness”.
She said the issues of employment, casualisation, poverty and housing affordability needed to be addressed via government policy.
“We can give people lots of support, give them emergency and short-term accommodation and we can help them get into housing.
“But if those three main structural issues are not addressed, then it’s going to happen again and again.
“That is not the fault of the support agencies, nor the fault of the individual.
“It’s the fault of the social and economic fabric of where we’ve got to in our economy, our labour market and our society. It’s really bad, and it’s getting worse.”
Brendan Crabb
I'm a member of ACM's national property team, covering the Illawarra and South Coast. Based in Albion Park, NSW, I write about exciting, interesting or just downright quirky properties that have been listed for sale, major sales, market trends, auctions and more. One of my favourite aspects of being a journalist is I believe everyone has a story to tell. What's yours?
I'm a member of ACM's national property team, covering the Illawarra and South Coast. Based in Albion Park, NSW, I write about exciting, interesting or just downright quirky properties that have been listed for sale, major sales, market trends, auctions and more. One of my favourite aspects of being a journalist is I believe everyone has a story to tell. What's yours?
