Another unfortunate statistic released this week confirmed what many of us already know – if you are young and live in the Shoalhaven, your chances of getting a job are way behind your counterparts in other regions.
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A study of youth employment hotspots by the Brotherhood of St Laurencen ranked the Shoalhaven and Southern Highlands as third worst in NSW for joblessness among 15 to 24-year-olds, with an unemployment rate of 18.4 per cent.
If that sounds bad enough, Habitat Personnel says the figure is way too generous and youth unemployment is probably double that rate in the Shoalhaven. Given the state average for youth unemployment is 12.2 per cent, if left unchecked the situation in our region will cast far too many of our young people adrift. As the Brotherhood of St Laurence says, we owe the younger generation a good chance at a fulfilling future but young people themselves need to step up as well.
Shoalhaven Mayor Joanna Gash alluded to this on ABC radio during the week, saying apathy among young people was making the situation worse. She explained to an astonished interviewer that local employers had jobs to offer young people but many of them were failing mandatory drug tests, required if machinery was being used.
We have heard the same story at the Register from one major local manufacturing firm. It was having difficulty recruiting locally because applicants were failing drug tests. Unfortunately, substance abuse and joblessness go hand in hand, creating a vicious cycle that is hard to break.
As young people become disengaged from the community around, simple life skills such as getting up early for work, dressing appropriately and presenting well at interviews are eroded.
However, the onus does not rest solely with young people. Opportunities for job skills development in regional areas such as ours are becoming increasingly difficult with the centralising of TAFE courses and closure of outlying campuses.
There is no silver bullet to address youth unemployment but a more energetic effort by council to attract businesses to the region will help. While great effort is invested in luring developers the same exertion needs to be applied to growing the local economy.
As a community, we simply cannot afford to do nothing.
