Contractualism, Employment Services and Mature-Age Job Seekers

By Lorraine Kerr, Ed Carson and Jodi Goddard

Rates of mature-age unemployment are increasing. One factor is the mismatch between the skills of older workers and the demands of the contemporary labour market.

Another factor is the mismatch between the priorities and mode of operation of the current labour market programs and the needs of older jobseekers. The authors show that the agency capacity of job placement service providers is constrained by the current policy regime. Without a change from the current exclusive focus on tangible outcomes in job placement schemes mature age workers will continue to be disadvantaged.

(The Drawing Board: an Australian review of public affairs. vol. 3, no. 2, November 2002)