Budget Initiative for more jobs for students helpful in uncertain climate says SJS

Wednesday 3rd June 2009

With the Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS) released earlier this month showing youth unemployment at 20% for 15-19 year olds and 12% for 20-24 year olds, SJS is welcoming the Budget initiative announced on Thursday to provide more jobs for students over the coming summer via research scholarships.

Youth workers have been the hardest hit by unemployment, says SJS, with their unemployment rate in the latest HLFS results at 20% and 12% being far higher than the overall rate of 5%

“Over the last 27 years SJS has been committed to supporting as many tertiary students as possible to find work both in term and over summer. The challenge now is greater than ever before in our organisations history for students to find work” reports CEO Martin Chamberlain.  “We are working closely with both employers and students to help them in these tough times.”

Mr Chamberlain also said that “all indicators point to one of our busiest years yet at SJS with enrolments by students looking for work expected to be more than the 27% increase we experienced during orientation earlier this year.” 

“We are doing everything we can to plan for the dramatic upswing in students looking for work both now and over the coming summer.  But the fact of the matter is, we can only place a student in work if we can find a job vacancy from an employer for them – and that is proving to be extremely challenging at present” Mr Chamberlain continued.

SJS is a not-for-profit free employment service offering employers tertiary students with all kinds of skills willing to do all kinds of work since 1982.  SJS is owned and governed by Student Associations and is the third largest income stream for tertiary students behind Student Loans and Student Allowances.  SJS generated more than $80million of earnings for students last year.

SJS filled over 30,000 vacancies last year and helped more than 25,000 students find work. The majority of jobs placed by SJS are in retail, hospitality, household and office/professional industries.  Examples of the wide range of vacancies that are filled each year are; seasonal work such as fruit picking, IT staff, tutoring, child minding and gardening.

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