Evaluation of the Australian Wage Subsidy Special Youth ...

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importance of the subsidy secondary to the quality and suitability of the worker, and
references were made to the problems of low skills, poor attitudes to work and low
motivation of long-term unemployed as perceived by employers (DEETYA (1996): 47).
In October 1995, Jobstart was adjusted to allow shorter placements and extension of
eligibility to those 6-12 months unemployed.
Table 2.1 Private Sector Jobstart subsidy weekly rates 1985-1987
Age of placement Jobstart Basic rate $ Jobstart Special rate $
15-17 50 75
18-20 75 110
21-44 100 150
45+ 125 180
Source: Kesteven (1987) p45
A flurry of evaluation evidence started to exist for Jobstart from about the time of this
programme’s inception, and through the 1990’s. These evaluations were usually by the
government department responsible for the programme. Most of the more recent studies
use the matched comparison group design, or exact matching methods. 9 The early
evaluation DEET (1989) used data on 1000 participants and non-participants, and found
post-programme continuous full-time employability increased on average by 33
percentage points at 3,5 and 14 months. 10
The next analysis of Jobstart was published in 1993. The raw post-programme
employment share, sourced from the quarterly Post Program Survey, showed that for
1992 there were 95,600 new placements and 57 per cent of Jobstart participants were in
unsubsidised employment over the 12 months to September 1992 (DEET (1994) p38
Table 5.3). This was the highest employment outcome amongst all programmes, with the
average for all programmes at 32 per cent. Younger jobseekers were more likely to
receive Jobstart 11 , and men were more likely to get Jobstart placements. 12 SYETP became
Jobstart, and after 10 years in place it seems likely that SYETP had become a generally
9 See earlier in Chapter 1 for the introduction to evaluation methods, and Chapter 4.4 for a description of
matching.
10 DEET (1989) “Jobstart evaluation” DEET Program Review and Income Support Branch, Canberra. Cited
in Webster (1998) Table 1 p194.
11 DEET (1994) p45 and p33 “participation by youth in Jobstart, especially 18-20 years olds was well
above average placement rates.”
12 DEET (1994) p33 “32 places to women per 1000 registrants compared to 44 for men”.