Australia’s underemployed:a big labour pool

More than half a million Australians would like to work longer each week.

The Statistician reported today that the nation has 571,900 part time workers who would “prefer more hours.”

That’s a significant figure, for a country battling high inflationary pressures.

Especially as those pressures could be expected to ease, if more of those workers were able to get the extra work that they want.

We mustn’t be simplistic about this. There are, after all, many good reasons why these people are not putting in those extra hours.

These include child minding responsibilities, inadequate training and language difficulties.

Australia will always need more skilled migrants, to fill gaps in the nation’s workforce.

But that does not mean that it can afford to overlook people like the underemployed, either.

Training a semi-skilled person, to do a skilled job, is a win-win situation for everyone.

The person involved gets a better job. The boss gets a better employee. The nation gets more tax, from that person’s higher income.

What all this does mean, though, is that breaking down the present barriers to better to things like better training can be a great investment, for everyone.