By Kat Wong in Canberra

Unemployed Australians are struggling to find a job as entry-level opportunities dry up, leaving many reliant on income support for years.

About 557,000 people have been receiving unemployment payments for more than a year, up from 51 per cent in 2021 to 60 per cent in 2024, a report from the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) reveals.

Half this group have a health condition, the majority are women and almost a third are over the age of 55, which means they can face significant barriers to employment.

Roughly 190,000 people have been on these allowances for more than five years and only eight per cent of this demographic transition off their payments.

Those dependent on them say they can barely afford to live.

“Every decision becomes a calculation: do I buy medication or groceries? Can I afford a doctor’s visit?” said income support recipient David, who lives in Adelaide.

“You start to feel invisible, forgotten by a system that claims to support you.

“The longer I remain unemployed, the more ingrained the problems become.”

Unemployed people often transition back into paid employment through entry-level positions but these opportunities have decreased by one percentage point since 2020 and almost four percentage points since 1998.

Workforce Australia, the government program which delivers employment services for job seekers, has also been accused of failing to help people into work, with only one in 10 participants finding a job that keeps them off income support for at least six months.

Australia’s unemployment support is amongst the lowest of wealthy nations, according to ACOSS CEO Cassandra Goldie.

The nation spends 0.4 per cent of its GDP on labour market policies, compared to Denmark and New Zealand who spend 1.7 per cent.

“We urgently need a complete overhaul of employment policy,” Dr Goldie said.

The council has called on the government to increase welfare payments to at least $82 a day, end automated payment suspensions, establish an independent quality assurance body for employment service providers and more.