Evaluation of the Australian Wage Subsidy Special Youth ...

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employer survey estimates were the shares observed for questions asking about what
hiring choices employers would have made if the subsidy placements had not been
available. A useful conclusion of the analysis of SYETP was that the following extreme
macro-outcomes for the subsidy could be considered excluded: a total windfall gain or
complete substitution of employees for SYETP placements; that all SYETP placements
took place without substitution of other workers; a 100 percent gain in employment per
subsidy to the target group or the economy.
Table 2.13 Smith (1984b) summary of estimates of SYETP
Immediate impact of 100 subsidised jobs on Employment
Period of data Target group Others Aggregate
Smith (1984) 1978-83 64 -16 49
DEIR (1984) 42 1983 42 -30 12
Hoy and Ryan 1981 43 -24 19
(1984)
DEYA (1980) 43 1979 94 -61 33
Source: Smith (1984) p 8a Table 1
2.2.6.2 Job characteristics
SYETP jobs were mostly low-paid, had a high job turnover, and private SYETP
placements were more commonly for 15-17 year old girls. 44 Over the period 1976-1982,
approximately 90 percent of placements were for 15 to 19 year olds, although the eligible
age group was 18-24 years (Hoy and Lampe (1982): 24). Over this same period, the share
of females always outnumbered males in placements relative to the number of 15-19 year
olds employed full-time (Hoy and Lampe (1982) p24 and Figure 1). In August 1978, the
number of young women in SYETP peaked at 9 per cent of those in full time
employment, but after this fluctuated between 2-4 per cent with males slightly lower at 1
to 3 per cent. 45 Hoy and Lampe (1982) pointed out that 49 per cent of teenage females
assisted under SYETP were employed in Manufacturing and Retail occupations. It was
42 DEIR “Telephone survey of wage subsidy employers conducted in November 1983” as Cited p8a Smith
(1984), and as referenced p55 Smith (1984). This reference is unpublished.
43 DEYA (1980) “SYETP in the private sector: follow-up survey of April 1979 placements” Melbourne,
unpublished. Cited Smith (1984) p8a. This reference is unpublished.
44 Cited p128 BLMR (1984) and see also Hoy and Lampe (1982) p22.
45 Hoy and Lampe (1982). Calculations based on placement numbers relative to the ABS Labour Force
Survey estimates of Labour Force in employment for 15-19 year olds.