Mature-Aged Job Seekers' Experiences of Centrelink and the Job Network Services in an Australian Regional Centre

Abstract

Unemployment may be considered a normal, if not likely, experience of a person's lifelong career. This paper is based on a primary, qualitative study that focused on the way mature-aged unemployed citizens experience government unemployment and employment agencies: Centrelink and the Job Network in a large regional city. It contributes to existing research that examines the experiences of particular unemployed groups as they negotiate their journey through these systems. Three themes emerged from the research, which was based on multiple in-depth interviews of 21 participants: the first was participants' experiences of disregard, disrespect and discrimination; the second was the restrictiveness of job information; the third was inappropriate job matching and inadequate employability training. We conclude that the experience of our participants supports criticisms made in other research about the restrictiveness and inadequacy of Job Network services, particularly for disadvantaged job seekers.