Australian Government Announces JobMaker Program To Get Young People Into Work

The Australian government has announced a new initiative to get young people into work.

JobMaker will encourage businesses to hire someone aged between 16 and 29, with every new employee in that age bracket earning the business $200 a week. For new staff aged 30 to 35, they'll get $100 a week.

The Morrison government hopes it will get around 450,000 people employed, which will be vital to kickstarting the economy as the country moves out of the coronavirus pandemic.

However, there will be a few catches (there's always a catch).

PA

In order for a person to get employed through JobMaker, they will have to have been receiving JobSeeker, Youth Allowance (Other) or the Parenting Payment in the three months before they're hired.

The new role will have to ensure they will be working at least 20 hours a week and businesses won't be allowed to claim JobKeeper if they go into JobMaker. That last caveat is to encourage businesses to change their attitudes towards getting a subsidy and make them more proactive to hire staff.

The jobs will have to be created from today (October 7) until October 6 next year. Once the person is hired, the business will get the $200 per week for 12 months, which means JobMaker will eventually finish on October 6, 2022.

Banks, local, state or federal agencies (like universities) aren't eligible to apply.

JobMaker is expected to cost the government $4 billion from 2020-21 to 2022-23.

The plan has received mixed reaction from people, with one person warning it could be just another scheme that encourages low income.

Isabella told The Age: "I will give [JobMaker] a chance and I'd love to see it work...but it seems like a recipe for more temporary low-wage and casual [work]. It sounded more like a marketing buzz term."

If you don't fit into the JobMaker scheme, there is also going to be help for apprentices.

Employers will get 50 per cent of a new apprentice's wage from the federal government, which will hopefully encourage a surge in employment.

Treasury says the scheme will hopefully create 100,000 more apprenticeships and will cost $1.2 billion.

Topics: News, Australia

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie