Middle-aged unemployed people are a forgotten group in society who feel 'thrown on the scrap-heap', according to a University of Queensland study.
For his PhD thesis with the University's Anthropology and Sociology Department, Dr Les Killion conducted in-depth interviews with 20 long-term unemployed people aged between 35 and 64 living in central Queensland.
He said respondents reported feeling neglected by government employment programs and were resigned to the fact that they would probably never secure paid work again.
'Most previous research has focused on unemployment among young people aged between 15 and 19. Around one-fifth of this group is unemployed, mostly on a short-term basis. For the group I studied, unemployment stands at round 30 percent with most unemployed for around five years already,' he said.
'Of the middle-aged unemployed, men aged between 50 and 55 tend to be hit hardest. Twelve percent of Australian men in this age group are unemployed and most will never work again. They face a long wait, around 15 years, before they can even qualify for the pension.'
He said middle-aged unemployed women were angry and frustrated because of the common perception that once unemployed, they would happily slide back into a housewife role.
Dr Killion said despite previous research showing many unemployed middle-aged men were unskilled, semi-skilled or blue-collared workers, those he studied also came from skilled and professional jobs such as computer operators, bank officers and school teachers.
He said the aim of his qualitative study was to get as close as possible to sharing the experience of being unemployed.
'I came to know the subjects as people, gaining a first-hand insight of the frustration, anger and depression they experienced on a daily basis as a result of being unemployed. Many felt they had been thrown on society's scrap-heap,' he said.
'Many reported that current government training programs were often totally inappropriate.'
Dr Killion, head of the School of Marketing and Tourism in the Faculty of Business and Law at Central Queensland University, said many middle-aged unemployed people were not Australian-born.
'A lot of them are post-war migrants we as a nation encouraged to come to Australia, portraying it as a land of opportunity. Now nobody wants them,' he said.
Most of the middle-aged unemployed were financially deprived and had not received large superannuation or redundancy pay-outs, he said.
'This curtails the leisure pursuits they can enjoy and the amount and kind of social interaction. One woman said to ?even be a friend' and go to the movies or lunch was impossible. Most reported they looked for the ?freebies' and tried to carefully follow a budget,' he said.
'Most said their health had improved - they ate more sensibly and did a lot of walking. One man said he had made a conscious effort to get fit to help him find another job. Many had found voluntary work. So their days had been filled but they were not getting the same financial and psychological returns as they would with paid work.'
Supervised by Professor John Western, the thesis found unemployed people's perception of their coping with unemployment differed greatly to that held by their partners and families.
'The unemployed men saw themselves as coping well whereas their partners and families thought the opposite. This tells us that men tend to put on a brave front and see themselves as infallible. People closest to them often see through the act,' he said.
'On the other hand, unemployed women reported symptoms of not coping well with unemployment such as more frequent visits to the doctor and the taking of anti-depressant medication. Those closest to them reported the opposite, saying they believed the women to be coping well.
'This tells us that women are not only being overlooked by society but also those closest to them. One woman said she had stopped attending family occasions such as barbeques and birthdays because she couldn't afford presents or clothes to wear etc. However, she could not admit this to her children and was constantly making up excuses.'
Dr Killion will receive his PhD at a graduation ceremony in the University's Mayne Hall on Wednesday, May 20.
For more information, contact Dr Killion (telephone 0749 309 616 (work) or 0749 278 157 (home)).
s are:
Tuesday May 5 - Life and Death on Coral Reefs, Dr Ian Tibbetts, School of Marine Science; The Molecular Time Machine: Blood Artefacts and DNA, Dr Tom Loy, Anthropology and Sociology Department/Centre for Molecular and Cellular Biology.
Wednesday May 6 - The Nanoworld: Electrons and Microscopy, Dr David Cousens, Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis.
Thursday, May 7 - Cool Robots: The Real Story, Dr Gordon Wyeth, Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Department.
For further information about any of these activities, contact Mrs Mergard, telephone 3365 3634 or by email: j.mergard@epsa.uq.edu.au
On Wednesday, May 6, University of Queensland staff will participate in an Australian Science Communicators Association/Sciencentre debate: Research and industry can never speak the same language, at the Sciencentre, corner George Street and Stephens Lane, City at 9am.
Participants for the affirmative are Beryl Morris (ForBio), Professor John Simmons (the University of Queensland) and Jim Duncan (Fibretech Developments Ltd). Speakers against are Professor Peter Andrews (Centre for Drug Design and Development, the University of Queensland), Harry Bonanno (Australian Canegrowers) and Dr John Manners (CRC for Tropical Plant Pathology/CSIRO). Morning tea will be served after the debate. Cost is $5. To register for this event, contact Michelle Riedlinger, telephone 3365 4776 or email: m.riedlinger@tpp.uq.edu.au
