I propose to take Questions Nos. 2787 and 2790 together.
Between July 2015 and June 2019, some 231,547 jobseekers had commenced their engagement period with the JobPath service. Of this number, 52% were unemployed for over three years. These groups face significant barriers when seeking to enter or return to employment in the open labour market. The number of non-engagements reported to the Department by Seetec and Turas Nua by year is set out in table 1. The 95,880 jobseekers have, on at least one occasion, failed to engage with the JobPath providers. The majority of these non-engagements are for missed appointments that were subsequently re-scheduled. To date, some 52,794 jobseekers have commenced employment during their engagement period with JobPath. Of this number, 47,082 had commenced full-time employment and 5,712 had commenced part-time employment. Many clients who are currently engaged with JobPath are still in the first phase of the service and have not had sufficient time with the service to have gained employment nor sustain that employment for up to 52 weeks. Performance will improve as more clients complete their engagement with the service and have a chance to reach 52 weeks in employment. My Department does not maintain statistics on the specific types of employment commenced through JobPath. However the recent econometric review of JobPath noted that the weekly employment earnings of people who secured employment with the JobPath service are 17% higher than the weekly employment earnings of people who secured employment without the support of JobPath in 2018. Taken with the 26% improvement in employment outcomes in the same period, it means the overall positive employment/earnings impact is 37% in 2018 for those who are supported by the JobPath service. These findings indicate that jobseekers who engage with JobPath are more likely to get a positive employment outcome than those jobseekers who are not supported by the service.
Table 1: Jobseekers reported as not engaging by year of referral
Year
|
Jobseekers
|
2015
|
943
|
2016
|
23,125
|
2017
|
33,883
|
2018
|
29,576
|
2019
|
8,353
|
Total
|
95,880
|
Table 2: Jobseekers engaged with JobPath and full time employment outcomes
Weeks
|
Jobstarts
|
Total number of Job starts
|
52,794
|
13 weeks or more
|
|
Number of job starts which occurred over 13 weeks ago
|
49,952
|
Number of those which sustained for 13 weeks
|
32,089
|
26 weeks or more
|
|
Number of job starts which occurred over 26 weeks ago
|
46,412
|
Number of those which sustained for 26 weeks
|
24,726
|
39 weeks or more
|
|
Number of job starts which occurred over 39 weeks ago
|
43,090
|
Number of those which sustained for 39 weeks
|
19,608
|
52 weeks or more
|
|
Number of job starts which occurred over 52 weeks ago
|
38,300
|
Number of those which sustained for 52 weeks
|
15,302
|