Help me keep the pressure on Department of Employment and Workplace Relations
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What I found on this entity
Annual Budget
$5.6B
Headcount
2,900 staff
$2M per employee
Portfolio
Employment
Performance Targets vs Actuals
Target
Reduce unemployment below 4%; 85% of jobseeker program participants in employment within 26 weeks; 90% of workplace safety investigations closed within 6 months
Actual
Unemployment 4.3%; 67% of jobseekers employed within 26 weeks; 76% of investigations closed in 6 months
Source: Employment programs significantly underperforming. Only 2 in 3 participants find work within 26 weeks.
My Findings & Evidence1 finding
PBS25 Mar 2025
$1.2B wasted
$1.19B spent on jobseeker programs that miss employment targets by 18 percentage points
The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations targets 85% of jobseeker program participants in employment within 26 weeks, but only 67% actually are — an 18 percentage point shortfall. With a $5.6 billion annual budget and jobseeker programs being the department's core business, this performance gap represents roughly $1.19 billion of your taxes not delivering the promised results. That's money meant to get Australians into work that simply isn't getting the job done.