Tenielle Edwards, 18, is one of Rockingham's struggling young adults looking for work. Picture: Theo Fakos. Source: News Corp Australia
TENIELLE Edwards has applied for 20 jobs in six weeks without any luck.
The Year 12 graduate moved to Rockingham from Victoria with her father after he got a fly-in, fly-out job with a mining company.
"I've been applying online and in person, I've got a decent resume and I'm doing everything I can to find a job," the teenager, who described walking through the Centrelink doors as "demoralising", said.
"But every boss says they're looking for someone with experience.
"How am I expected to get experience if no one gives me a go in the first place?
"If someone will consider me, if they'll train me, I'll do just about anything and I won't let them down."
Australian Bureau of Statistics labour force figures for April show almost one-in-five jobseekers aged between 15-24 in Rockingham and Kwinana cannot find work.
That's more than double the youth jobless rates in some parts of Perth and compares to a state jobless average of one-in-10 young people.
The ABS figures show WA has the country's lowest unemployment rate but young people are overrepresented – nowhere more so than in the southwest metropolitan area of Rockingham, Kwinana and Cockburn. This is despite it being a backbone of heavy industry.
The youth jobless rate comes on top of a Federal Budget blow forcing some young people to wait six months for the dole.
The Sunday Times hit the streets of Rockingham to speak with young people looking for work.
Outside the local Centrelink, youths insisted they were desperate to work and were willing to do "anything" for a wage, begging: "Just give us a job".
Nathan McDermott, 20, uses his motorbike as a taxi. Picture: Theo Fakos Source: News Corp Australia
Third-year apprentice boilermaker welder Nathan McDermott is so desperate for work he's been forced to use his motorcycle as a taxi to offer people lifts around town.
He also pleads with family friends for handyman work and doorknocks the streets of Rockingham offering discount lawn mowing.
It is a big fall from eight months ago when he was "loving" his job and was looking forward to becoming a fully qualified boilermaker. But his company "lost all their work", mass lay-offs followed and Mr McDermott was axed.
He said there was "no way to get back in" to the industry because every boss told him they were hiring either first year apprentices or fully qualified welders.
"It's been hell. I'm barely scraping by. I do any odd job I can," he said.
Meanwhile, the feeling of worthlessness from not being able to get a job pushed Ashlee Brown "over the edge" and led to a suicide attempt.
And while the single mother says she now no longer thinks about taking her own life, she has been two years without work and fears she may never get a job.
Ashlee Brown says employers don't want to hire a single mum. Picture: Theo Fakos Source: News Corp Australia
Ms Brown left Kwinana Senior High School in Year 11 and worked for a supermarket chain for three years before she lost her job following a battle with depression. At the time, she was pregnant but did not realise it.
In the two years since then, she said she'd tried to get "every kind of job" from retail to cleaning.
"But as soon as I say I'm a single mum, bosses don't want to know about me," said Ms Brown, who is caring for her two-year-old daughter Matilda and her grandmother who recently had a mastectomy.
"I can't afford childcare all week and that affects the hours I can work. But I'd like to tell every employer out there – if you've got a job, I'm willing to work. I'll give anything a shot."
Josh Bullock, 18, completed Year 12 but he said not being able to find a job is so soul-destroying that he "pretty much spent a month in my room and didn't want to come out".
The teenager finished school and worked at IGA but said he was forced to quit because of anxiety and stress as a result of a handful of customers who gave him a hard time.
"I was boisterous and loud at school but something changed. I felt useless, just useless. I'd walk into Centrelink and they'd tell me I was only worth $80 a fortnight and it made me feel like I was worthless," he said.
The Kwinana teenager is now planning on going to TAFE and becoming an interior painter but he says bosses need "give young people a chance" and "not judge a book by its cover".
"I'd work retail, painting, lifting boxes… whatever. It's depressing when you want to work but nobody wants you," he said.
Josh Bullock, 18, says bosses need to "give young people a chance". Picture: Theo Fakos. Source: News Corp Australia
There were just 206 jobs across all salaries and industries advertised on Seek.com this week in the Rockingham-Kwinana area.
That compared to more than 10,600 jobs advertised in greater Perth.
There's a perception that the Kwinana industrial strip brings a lot of jobs but not a lot of those positions are taken up by local people.
Rockingham mayor Barry Sammels
Rockingham mayor Barry Sammels said the city was growing at almost three times the national average and the job market was playing catch up.
But he said a string of major projects including shopping centre expansions, new hotels and infrastructure upgrades would lead to "more investment and job creation".
"There's a perception that the Kwinana industrial strip brings a lot of jobs but not a lot of those positions are taken up by local people. You see them all coming down the highway from Perth in their high vis," Mr Sammels said.
Opposition leader Mark McGowan, who calls Rockingham home, said unemployment had doubled under the Barnett Government as a result of lost projects, rising training costs and the decline of manufacturing and construction.
Employment service provider Bridging the Gap blamed a lack of services to help young people make the transition from school to work.
It comes as a report by the State Training Board found that "despite WA's current economic environment and the strong condition of the general labour market", youth were experiencing "significantly higher rates of unemployment".
The Chamber of Commerce WA urged young people to undertake training or further education to improve their qualifications and boost their chance of getting a job.
The Sunday Times was awaiting a response from Premier Colin Barnett and Workforce Development Minister Kim Hames.
Could you hire one of these jobseekers?
Let us know, email trevor.paddenburg@news.com.au
Matt Cutts, 22, says persistence is key to getting work. Picture: Theo Fakos. Source: News Limited
COLD calling employers and "sheer persistence" are the answers to finding a job, says a Rockingham tradesman who fought the unemployment battle for five months.
Father and roofing labourer Matt Cutts, 22, said: "I had no work. I was becoming desperate. But the answer is persistence – that's the honest truth.
"I was constantly applying for jobs and looking at job websites but then I started cold calling and cold canvassing. You have to do it that way, you have to get face to face, otherwise you're just another anonymous resume.
"You have to do the stuff you really don't want to do. You don't want to sit on the phone all day or look through the Yellow Pages ringing every single business or walk around handing out a heap of resumes, but that's what you have to do.
"I persisted and persisted. You can get lazy but you have to put your head down, bum up."
Mr Cutts, who completed Year 11, hopes to do an electrical apprenticeship but for now is happy just to be working again and supporting his family.
"Now I've got my foot back in the door and working again has lifted my spirits because, yeah, it was getting to me. I was feeling a bit useless," he said.
"No-one is going to help you if you don't help yourself."
Mr Cutts said, while many young people on government benefits wanted to work, others were "rorting the system".
But he said competition was fierce among those who wanted to work because jobs were scarce.
"I've been pushing hard for a job and it took me a long time. There's definitely not enough jobs for everyone," he said.
TIPS TO GET A JOB
1. Consider increasing your skills, retrain or find a training path that will lead you to a job.
2. If its experience your CV is lacking, put your hand up for volunteer work.
3. When applying for jobs, make sure you get someone to read over your CV and cover letters to check the spelling and grammar before you send it.
4. If you are offered an interview, do your research on the business before your appointment. Get an understanding of the business.
5. Clean up your social media websites (Facebook, Instagram etc.). Employers may use these sites to find out more about you.
6. Don't be disheartened by rejection. Competition for jobs is strong out there and usually only one person can get the job. It doesn't mean you weren't capable of doing to the job.
Source: Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA
OUT OF WORK
Unemployment rate as a percentage among workforce-eligible 15-24 year olds for April 2014
WA 9.8
Greater Perth 10.1
Mandurah 9.6
Perth – Inner 14.2
Perth – NE 11.2
Perth – NW 6.8
Perth – SE 8.5
Perth – SW 14.6
Bunbury 2.8
WA Outback 12.8
WA Wheatbelt 5.7
Rest of WA 8.3
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics
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