This report examines the profile of people affected by unemployment and receiving income support. It looks behind the headline unemployment statistics to reveal that long-term unemployment – as measured by receipt of unemployment payments for over 12 months – is now entrenched at an economically and socially harmful level.

In this report, the Committee finds that the significant and numerous issues identified during this inquiry simply cannot be addressed by mere tweaks to policies and programs. They demand wholesale, large-scale reform in the coming months and years to fundamentally rebuild the Australian employment services system.

This publication lays out a plan to support people who have been out of work long-term.

ACOSS has released its proposals to restore full employment in Australia for this week’s Jobs and Skills Summit, including a bold plan to reform employment assistance for people unemployed long-term.

This report is based on a second survey of users of Jobactive employment services, the first of which was published in 2018. The title of this report reflects ACOSS’s commitment to amplifying people’s experiences of employment services.