Australian Young People and COVID-19: Unemployment, Government Interventions and Exclusion

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to severe economic and labour market shocks around the globe (Fegert et al., 2020). At present, there is between 5.3 and 24.7 million in the number of unemployed populations being as a result of the COVID-19 impact (ILO, 2020). The recently released April 2020 ILO report reveals that as job losses surge, nearly half of global workforce at risk of losing livelihoods. However, the impact on youth employment seems to be exacerbated, given that young people–aged between 15-24 are already three times more likely to be unemployed than adults (ILO, 2020). According to the ILO’s report 2018, young people are more likely to be in gig/informal economy than other age cohorts.