Governments can’t do everything, but what they aim to achieve through their policies does matter. In the case of employment the aim of policy must be to enable everyone to access employment. Employment is not a privilege. Because it is so important to a person’s self-confidence and flourishing, it is a right.
What are the factors that make it more difficult for people to find employment? Research has shown that the ability to find employment is shaped by where people live. Unemployment is significantly high in a relatively small number of local regions that are also marked by many signs of poverty and disadvantage. People living there, for example, have less access to child-care, education and computers, suffer disproportionately from family instability, physical and mental ill health, and are more likely to come into the justice system. In these areas poverty and unemployment do not simply co-exist. They multiply one another.
These links show that to offer all people access to employment the government must do more than create more jobs. They must focus on the effects of disadvantage. The attitudes and assumptions about employment ingrained in government policies must also change. They must, for example, abandon the assumption that economic stability demands an unemployment rate of more than two per cent. They must also see unemployment as a social problem to be remedied and not as an individual fault to be punished, and see people who are unemployed as in need of help to find work and not as blameworthy.
The first step is to insist that all people receive a living wage. Jobkeeper and other benefits must be increased so that people are not beset with constant anxiety about buying food and finding shelter. When they can live with dignity they will better be able to seek employment.
The government must also abstain from shaming rhetoric and the punitive linking of access to benefits with humiliating demands to apply for non-existent work. Employment services, at present focused on compliance and policing, must be oriented to supporting people seeking employment. Building relationships is central, particularly when working with people who are disadvantaged. For that reason these services should be entrusted to non-profit organisations.
Untangling the relationship between poverty and unemployment will also require coordinated support for the health, education and other services in disadvantaged local communities which will help young people to grow and find satisfying work. The government should establish a Social Inclusion Fund to sustain and develop these local initiatives.
After the disruptions caused by Covid and climate change, employment policies must support people in transitions to employment and between employment. They must strengthen programs to facilitate the transition of young people to work, the transition of immigrants and refugees to work that draws on their gifts and previous qualifications, and the transition from an economy based on physical labour in high-emission industries to a knowledge-based and green economy.
Finally, an employment policy must foster respectful behaviour in workplaces. Bullying and disrespectful behaviour often reflects the harmful attitudes of many young men to women and to people seen as different. Programs that encourage a healthy masculinity should be supported.
This monthly reflection is drawn from one of many submissions made by Jesuit Social Services to government enquiries on current issues. The submissions always focus on the needs of the people, especially young people, whom our Jesuit Social Services staff accompany work and whose experience and needs we understand. Click here for a summary of this submission.