Study of unemployment figures in Aust.

Press, 29 January 1986, Page 5

Study of unemployment figures in Aust.

NZPA-AAP Adelaide Australia’s more recent immigrants, the IndoChinese, have the highest level of unemployment, according to a labour market study. The South Australian Employment Minister, Mr Arnold, said a profile of immigrant workers had shown the country was not providing for a homogenous group of people arriving in Australia. The profile, prepared by the Labour Market Research Unit in Adelaide, found that 60 per cent of South Australia’s Vietnamese immigrants are unemployed while European immigrants had an unemployment level just below the national average of 7.9 per cent. Mr Arnold said the differences required further investigation and could not simply be put down to European or Asian background. The study found a

strong link between the time a person arrived in Australia and their rate of unemployment. “For example, people who arrived before 1971 had an unemployment rate of 7.9 per cent compared with 30.2 per cent for those arriving after the start of 1984,” Mr Arnold said. “This indicates the particular problems faced by recent arrivals, finding work in a labour market already experiencing high levels of unemployment. “As a high proportion of Asian immigrants-re-fugees have arrived in recent years, this partly explains their very high unemployment rates. “Family connections, the size and capabilities of community support groups, and skill levels, all influence the current picture,” Mr Arnold said.

“I would not be surprised to see a significant change to the profile

over the next few years considering the interest shown by immigrants from relatively new communities, such as those from Indo-China, in employment training schemes.” The profile found that overseas born women generally had worse employment prospects than Australian-born women or overseas-born men. Mr Arnold said the profile also showed the belief that Australian-born children of parents from nonEnglish speaking countries were more disadvantaged than children with parents from Englishspeaking countries was not entirely supported by the evidence gathered. Australian-born children with parents from non-English speaking countries had proportionately higher educational participation than children of immigrants from English-speaking countries, he said.