Research Note 31 1997-98

Labour Market Programme Outcomes 1996-97

Steve O'Neill
Economics, Commerce and Industrial Relations Group
9 March 1998

This research note tabulates expenditures and numbers of persons assisted via the main forms of labour market assistance in 1996-97 compared to 1995-96.

Details can be found within the Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs' (DEETYA) Programme 4: Employment in DEETYA's annual reports and its Programmes 1996-97 publication.

The Working Nation (May 1994) suite of labour market programs (LMPs) comprised about 15 or more individual programmes. Some of these were subsumed into new programmes in October 1996. In 1995, the Commonwealth Employment Service (CES) Advisory Council's report, Review of Labour Market Programmes recommended that the range of programmes under Working Nation be streamlined into four groups. The Government subsequently streamlined the existing schemes into Employer Incentives; Enterprise and Adjustment; Training for Employment; and Jobseeker Preparation and Support.

DEETYA's 1997 annual report cautions against making comparisons between 1995-96 and 1996-97 labour market expenditure figures since allocations have been redirected between DEETYA programmes and sub-programmes. Certain employment assistance measures such as Green Corps are not featured below since it is not considered a labour market programme and can be found in DEETYA Programme 5.

The Government's major blueprint for employment reform, Reforming Employment Assistance: Helping Australians into Real Jobs. (Ministerial Statement, DEETYA, Budget 1996) proposed that the Government would become a purchaser of employment services for unemployed people mainly from the private/community sector. The primary objective of the employment services market service is to place eligible unemployed people into jobs, but training and other assistance measures can also be purchased. The finance for purchasing these services would be derived from 'cashing out' labour market programme expenditures.

It is intended that sub-programme 4.7 (the employment services market) will be the only programme providing mainstream LMP assistance in the future. The publication Programmes 1997-98 states that after May 1998 the LMPs which will continue will be the Regional Assistance Scheme, the Advanced English for Migrants Programme, the Employment Strategies component of Aboriginal Employment Assistance (TAP) and the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme will become one of the services offered under the employment services market.

The outcome for the LMP budget (Programme 4), including running costs in 1995-96 was $2.7 billion; in 1996-97 it was $2.08 billion and the allocation for 1997-98 is $1.6 billion. Thus the table overleaf does not reflect the full amount of labour market assistance provided through Programme 4. The costs of the CES (now known as Employment National), Employment Assistance Australia and the Employment Services Regulatory Authority are not detailed. Similarly, the costs of assistance provided for apprenticeships and traineeships are not included in the table. These are not considered to be LMP expenditures for the unemployed, since the target of the assistance may not have been registered as unemployed before commencing the training arrangement.

Key Labour Market Programmes

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