6222.0 - Job Search Experience, Australia, Jul 2007  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 07/12/2007   
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MEDIA RELEASE
December 7, 2007
Embargoed 11.30 am (AEDT)
126/2007
Internet used more in the search for jobs

A higher proportion of unemployed people and job starters (see media note) are using the Internet as a step to find or attain work, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Over the past four years the proportion of unemployed people who 'answered an advertisement for a job on the Internet' increased from 37% (in July 2004) to 49% (in July 2007) and for job starters it increased from 20% to 30%.

The proportion who 'looked for advertisements for jobs on the Internet' increased from 56% to 66% for unemployed people and from 31% to 42% for job starters.

However, despite the increased use of the Internet, contacting an employer (by writing, phoning or applying in person to an employer for work) has remained the most common step used by unemployed people (84%) and job starters (60%).

Other characteristics of the unemployed

The most commonly reported main difficulties in finding work for the 414,200 unemployed people were 'lacked necessary skills or education', 'insufficient work experience' and 'own ill health or disability' (each 10%).

Less than one-fifth (19%) of unemployed people had been unemployed for 12 months or more at July 2007. The median duration of unemployment was 12 weeks, compared with 20 weeks in July 2000.

Other characteristics of job starters

There were 1.6 million job starters in total, of which 89% (1.4 million) were employees (excluding owner managers of incorporated enterprises) in their current job and 11% were owner managers or contributing family workers.

Over half (57%) of all job starters looked for work for less than one year before being offered that job or starting that business; 40% did not look for work at all; and 4% looked for a year or more.

Further details can be found in Job Search Experience, Australia, July 2007 (cat. no. 6222.0).

Media note:
Job starters are employed people who started their current job in the previous 12 months. Questions which determined the steps job starters used to find a job were only asked of job starters who were employees (excluding owner managers of incorporated enterprises).