Yahoo News 'I feel I will never get another job': Australian readers on searching for work in the Covid recession
Australia is in the depths of a Covid-19 induced recession and with the situation only worsening in Victoria, there is little reason for optimism among those who are looking for work. Guardian Australia asked readers about their experiences being made unemployed and trying to get back into the workforce:
I don’t have much confidence in finding a job by September
I’m on jobkeeper, so finding other work isn’t urgent yet. However, I’m a travel agent in Western Australia, so the chances of me being able to go back to work anytime soon are slim to none. I have applied for a lot of jobs and only one of them has even sent me a response – and that response was to say that there was only one position with 2,500 applications. It was a retail role, but some applicants had worked in their specific segment of retail previously. I hadn’t. I didn’t get an interview.
If I haven’t been made redundant before then, I will need to find alternative work by the end of September, as my mortgage is too high a percentage of the reduced jobkeeper payment for me to stay afloat. I don’t have much confidence in finding a job by then at this stage.
Anonymous, Westen Australia
The reality of being homeless in 2020 is eye-opening
I’ve applied for essentially everything I’m capable of applying for, only to never hear back or receive the dreaded response from Seek saying I was one of 400 applicants. Since losing my job and going to jobseeker payments, I have been assigned to a job network who have done nothing but call me once every week and ask how my job search is going. No offers, no help. They’re just making the entire situation more frustrating.
It’s an incredibly depressing experience, and I dread the day when jobseeker’s payment is cut at the end of September, as I will no longer be able to afford rent. The reality of being homeless in 2020 is certainly an eye-opening one to [the situation of] all those who somehow had to live on jobseeker’s previous poverty levels of payment.
Johnny, Sydney
I go to sleep every night with a lump in my stomach
After returning from maternity leave in January, being made redundant in February and then running headfirst into a pandemic in March, calling 2020 a rollercoaster feels generous. Job hunting has been distressing and demoralising. With so many out of work in my industry (graphic design), jobs on LinkedIn show 300+ applications within just 24 hours. The few recruiters and agencies I have spoken to have asked me point-blank to cut my rates and salary expectations up to as much as 50%. Financial insecurity, loss of identity and no job prospects on the immediate horizon.
All this while trying to parent a 17-month-old and live up to the Instagram #mumlife ideals. Not to mention the anxiety of having to keep my child in paid daycare to maintain his spot in case I do get work because there is so much pressure on that industry too. 2020 hasn’t been kind on this front, and while I’m grateful to have a roof over my head, and food on the table, I also go to sleep every night with an aching lump in my stomach longing to just catch a break.
Jo, Marrickville
Companies tend to choose those with western names
It has been very challenging. I have been applying for so many jobs (100+) but have only been invited to one interview and I didn’t get the job in the end. I was not successful, as I don’t have much experience and I was the youngest amongst another 10 candidates. I feel that having a Japanese name also makes it hard to get an interview. I feel the majority of the companies tend to choose those with Western names. I feel very inferior, being Asian. There are so many people applying for a job and it is hard to be chosen amongst other western people. I have completed a masters degree and struggle to get a job. It is really frustrating and I cannot get jobseeker due to being on a bridging visa. Really hard to keep hope up in this.
Chikako, Northcote
There are a lot of people in the same dilemma
I began a new job at the start of the year. It’s since emerged that the new company I work for has very shoddy employment practices, no HR policies and is extremely toxic and discriminatory towards women. But under the current circumstances, I can’t leave because there are no jobs – and I can’t address the issues because if I were let go because of speaking up I would be unemployed, without hope of finding anything. So for me, the jobs crisis has created a new issue: employers using the constricted market to exploit staff.
Our parent company asked for an across-the-board wage reduction and management did not want to cut their own pay – they have implemented non-accrual of leave, below the minimum entitlements of the Fair Work Act. The work environment is impacting heavily on my mental health and life in general and there is no way out. I am sure there are a lot of people out there in the same dilemma.
Tawny, Melbourne
We don’t actually have an end in sight
It’s hard to say how many jobs I’ve applied for, I would say close to a hundred ... maybe two? In that time, I’ve had two job interviews. One in a bottle shop where I was quickly reminded that they’d had scores of other applicants and another for a youth justice facility where I was told that I should be prepared to physically restrain and use pepper spray on young people. I didn’t get the first and I couldn’t bring myself to continue my application for the second.
I’m a Kiwi and I was a full-time musician, my last gig was supposed to be playing at the grand prix on 15 March and I haven’t worked a day since it was cancelled. I don’t qualify for any help from the government as a sole trader who didn’t get his tax bill paid in time (a week after the cutoff) so my savings are just about gone, and I’m not really too sure what to do now.
Unfortunately, the six years of paying taxes and the work that I’ve put in living here doesn’t amount to anything in the eyes of the government. I’ll probably have to go back to New Zealand just to carry on.
We’re all having good days and bad days, but I can’t help but get pretty angry when I hear someone who still has a job say “why don’t you just get a job stacking shelves at the supermarket?” Well, I got my rejection letter from Aldi last week. It’s not like I can even go out and busk, which for years I’ve jokingly said I could always fall back to in case I risked going hungry.
Finley, Yarraville, Victoria
‘If I don’t get something before the mortgage embargo ends, I will have to sell my house’
I have worked in IT for over 25 years. Since losing my job I’ve applied for literally hundreds upon hundreds of jobs at all levels, just to try to get anything. I have not had one single callback, let alone an interview.
I am beginning to learn that my industry seems to want someone who is 30 with 15 years’ experience, not someone who is over 45 with 25.
If I don’t get something before the mortgage embargo ends, I will have to sell my house.
Nemir, Melbourne
Employment flexibility really means flexibility to throw you under the bus
I’m one of the two-thirds of university workers who has been in insecure and often unpaid work for years prior to this recession – and who has actively been excluded from government support. I worked a lot of free hours to assist the faculty and students with the rapid transition to distance learning mid-semester, as did my colleagues, under a misleading claim by the UQ executive that they would engage a job protection framework. Once the work was done, the framework was scuttled and the executive secretly planned to discontinue all casual teaching staff. They only backed off after significant union pushback. This is merely a symptom of the toxic industrial relations regime in the university sector and a reminder that employment flexibility really means flexibility to throw you under the bus.
Adrian, Brisbane
Hoping the contract comes through …
Related: Scott Morrison wants people weaned off Covid-19 income support. But this strategy carries risks
I have obtained multiple interviews conducted via Zoom for 15 minutes on average. The sound and picture quality has been just OK with time delay providing a minimal window to show what you’ve got. All of these interviews have resulted in no work. I am 55. I have, however, had one company interview me face-to-face (masked up) on two occasions – and yesterday I received a verbal job offer, which is great. Hoping the contract comes through …
Keith, Melbourne
‘I’ve seen as high as 750 applicants for one position’
Since my job loss, I have been relentlessly searching for work. It’s really challenging because when you look at Seek and a position you applied for is filled, it shows you how many people applied for the position. I’ve seen as high as 750 applicants for one position.
Anonymous, ACT
‘I feel I will never get another job’
I am 59 years old and have done the same job for 34 years – and now I’m unemployed. I have applied for several jobs, but you don’t know what an employer is looking for and it doesn’t take much to work out how old I am. You either don’t hear anything from the employer or you get a rejection email saying that you didn’t get the job. I feel I will never get another job.
Anonymous, Victoria
‘I have no choice’
I recently graduated at the age of 59 with a law degree and doctorate. I was employed by a law firm and let go at the beginning of the pandemic.
I’ve applied for numerous jobs. The job service provider now wants me to complete a security guard course at government expense so I can get some work doing crowd control. I have no choice.
Anonymous, Queensland
