This Government has failed the unemployed

Australia's current unemployment rate sits at 5.7%- up from 5.1% this time last year and is now tipped to reach 6.25% by mid-way through 2014 (South Australia's current unemployment rate is 7.1%, while in Tasmania it's now at 8%).

707,000-odd people are currently officially unemployed (that is not working at all and receiving Newstart) – though this is tipped to rise and rise. Over a million people are also officially under-employed.

Long-term unemployment (more than 12 months) is also on the rise– with the number of long-term unemployed young people jumping from 32,000 to 62,000 since 2008.

Australiaresisted the GFC and we can partially thank the ALP for that, but while other countries are now recovering – we are inexplicably heading the other direction.

Managing the economy so people can find work must surely be one of the main goals of Government.

So it should come as no surprise that Rudd is being caned in the polls – the sectors which have shed the most jobssince 2008 are manufacturing and retail, the two biggest industries across Australia's swinging outer suburban marginal seats.

Indeed, Deakin University politics lecturer Dr Geoff Robinson thinks that people are swinging against the ALP in the outer suburbs because they feel their key industries are under strain.

"People feel very insecure about their jobs and feel like things will be more secure under a conservative watch" he said.

By contrast, the vast majorityof jobs growth has occurred within the health sector – hardly a sign of a blossoming economy.

For many people in the marginal electorates, the Wizard of Oz has run out of tricks and the grandiose rhetoric just isn't matching the reality.

Perhaps the best long-term investment the ALP has made to jobs is by increasing the number of people who can attend University; though even this has been poorly designed with many University graduates finding a gap between their skills and the actual jobs on offer. By contrast Australia still has a mountain of skill shortages in the trades.

I'm not terribly confident the Coalition can deliver on jobs growth either. The Coalition's "2 million jobs" claim is a mere motto; they have not provided us with a deadline for this goal or what this might mean as a percentage target. They have not really explained how they think this will be achieved either. However, their announcement yesterday of subsidising employers to take on older workers is exactly the kind of common-sense, effective measure which is likely to produce results. This is kind of scheme which groups like ACOSS have been calling for a long-time – not more committees, agencies and mottos.