4102.0 - Australian Social Trends, Sep 2011  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 21/09/2011   
   Page tools: Print Print Page Print all pages in this productPrint All
MEDIA RELEASE
21 September 2011
Embargo: 11.30 am (Canberra time)
116/2011


Older unemployed struggle to find work

The older unemployed may be finding it harder to get a job and government schools have seen a drop in their proportion of student enrolments, according to the latest Australian Social Trends released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Long-term unemployment

Last financial year approximately one in five (19%) unemployed people had been jobless for at least a year and almost half (45%) of these people had been jobless for at least two years.

The proportion of unemployed people who had been jobless for at least a year had been lower before the impact of the global financial crisis (13% in February 2009).

A third (33%) of unemployed people aged 55-64 years were jobless for at least one year compared to 13% of unemployed 15 to 24 year olds.

Are all schools uniform? - Government and non-government schools

Over the last decade, the proportion of students enrolled in government schools declined from 69% in 2000 to 66% in 2010. One in five (20%) school children went to a Catholic school in 2010 (unchanged since 2000) and 14% went to an Independent school (up from 11% in 2000).

Housing assistance for renters

In 2009-10, over two-fifths (42%) of renter households received housing assistance.

Almost two-thirds (65%) of these received Commonwealth Rent Assistance, while over one-third (35%) were in social housing (mostly public housing). Over the decade to 2010, the number of families or single people who received Commonwealth Rent Assistance grew by 18% from around 937,100 to 1.1 million.

Community service workers

Recent and ongoing changes in Australia, such as growth in women's workforce participation and the ageing of the population, have placed increasing demands on community services such as child-care and residential care. Over the decade to 2010-11 the number of people employed in the community services industry has grown by 51% from 340,000 in 2000-01, to 513,000 in 2010-11.

Over the last decade, the workforce of the residential care services industry has aged particularly quickly. The proportion of workers in this industry aged 55 years and over more than doubled (from 11% in 2000-01 to 27% in 2010-11).

More details on these topics are available in the September edition of Australian Social Trends (cat. no. 4102.0).

Media note:
When reporting ABS data you must attribute the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or the ABS) as the source.