The Wire

The Howard government is running for re-election on a platform of sound economic management. They claim success in reducing youth unemployment to 7.5%, down from 11.6% in 1996, while the Labor Party claim the figure is closer to 22%. The dispute arises because each party choose to define youth unemployment using different figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. While the major parties argue about the rate of youth unemployment Democrats Senator, Natasha Stott Despoja says that the real issues are going unaddressed and young people are being disadvantaged because of it. Michael Atkin spoke to Natasha Stott Despoja and Dr Geoff Dow, lecturer in Political Economy at the University of Queensland. He says the youth unemployment rate fluctuates depending on whether students are included, and that we don’t actually need a ‘youth unemployment’ rate – we just need an overall rate for those who are unemployed.