By Denis Hay
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Why a Job Guarantee is Needed Now
Explore how a public job guarantee could transform Australia by ending unemployment, strengthening communities, and delivering economic justice.
Introduction – Why Work Matters
Location: Western Sydney, 2023.
Daniel, 32, stands in a Centrelink queue again. A trained youth mentor, he’s applied for over 120 jobs in six months. His daughter asks, “Why can’t you go to work like Mum?” The question stings. It’s not that Daniel doesn’t want to work – there aren’t enough decent jobs.
This is not just Daniel’s story. Across Australia, jobseekers are punished for not finding what doesn’t exist. Despite our nation’s wealth and sovereign control of its currency, millions are still underutilised or unemployed. The truth? Unemployment is a political choice. A job guarantee is the moral and economic alternative.
The Problem: Involuntary Unemployment Is Engineered
The False Promise of Market Full Employment
Australia’s unemployment rate, currently touted at around 4%, hides a grim truth: over 1.5 million Australians are underemployed or have given up looking. Many are trapped in casual or gig work with no security.
Thoughts: “I do everything right,” says single mum Fatima. “But every week, I worry whether I’ll have enough shifts to pay rent.”
This is no accident. Neoliberal policies deliberately support a buffer stock of unemployed to control inflation and discipline labour—the result: stagnant wages, growing inequality, and social despair.
Human and Economic Cost
Lost Potential, Broken Communities
Underemployment erodes identity and mental health. Young Australians face years of job insecurity. Communities hollow out as public services shrink. Indigenous Australians face unemployment rates triple the national average.
Anecdote: In outback Queensland, a retired teacher volunteers to teach reading at the local school because no paid support staff are available. Meanwhile, dozens of locals are still unemployed, desperate for meaningful work.
What if we designed an economy that ensured everyone who wants to work can contribute meaningfully?
A Public Job Guarantee
What Is a Job Guarantee?
A Job Guarantee (JG) is a federally funded, locally administered program that offers a public service job at a living wage to anyone ready and willing to work. It’s not workfare; it’s about the right to work with dignity.
What Kind of Jobs?
• Aged and disability care
• Bushfire prevention and climate resilience
• Community arts, literacy, mentoring
• Urban gardening, recycling, and restoration
A Stabiliser, not a Threat
JG acts as a buffer stock of employed, replacing the current reserve army of unemployed. It stabilises the economy in downturns and supplies skilled workers to the private sector in upswings.
How It Works: Australia’s Monetary Sovereignty
The Myth of ‘Taxpayer-Funded Jobs’
Thanks to monetary sovereignty, Australia does not need to ‘raise taxes’ to fund a Job Guarantee. As the currency issuer, the federal government can create money to utilise idle resources, including unemployed people.
Quote: Economist Dr. Steven Hail explains, “Unemployment is proof of government underspending. The public pays, corporations profit. A Job Guarantee flips this.”
Government spending is not limited by revenue but by real resource constraints: people, time, and skills.
International Evidence: Lessons from the World
Launched in 2002, this program employed over 2 million people, cutting extreme poverty while increasing local economic activity.
This rural job scheme legally guarantees households 100 days of paid work per year. It has lifted millions out of poverty and created vital infrastructure.
US and EU Pilots
Economists like Pavlina Tcherneva and Stephanie Kelton have modelled JGs that outperform basic income, poverty reduction, and economic stabilisation.
Benefits for Australia
• Reduces poverty and inequality.
• Revitalises rural and marginalised communities.
• Empowers local councils and grassroots innovation.
• Supports economic transitions. (climate, automation)
• Improves health, well-being, and civic participation.
Emotion: Imagine never fearing being left behind again – a safety net of purpose, not punishment.
Addressing the Critics
“It Will Be Inflationary”
Resource shortages, not employment, drive inflation. A JG uses underutilised labour, expanding supply capacity.
“It’s Just Make-Work”
Jobs would meet real community needs, which can be found locally. Demand is vast, from flood preparedness to elder care.
“Universal Basic Income Is Better”
UBI offers income, but not purpose, skill development, or social inclusion. A JG does all three.
Making It Happen in Australia
Who Runs It?
• Federally funded via the Treasury
• Designed in collaboration with state, territory, and local governments.
• Administered by a National Employment Authority with community input.
What It Costs
Estimates range from 1% to 3% of GDP, which is comparable to what we already spend on tax concessions for the wealthy.
Realignment: Shift spending from fossil fuel subsidies and tax loopholes to people and communities.
Reclaiming Work as a Right
Australians deserve the right to work and contribute meaningfully. A Job Guarantee ensures that right. It’s not radical – it’s economically sound, socially transformative, and morally just.
We have the tools, we have the need, and with Australia’s dollar sovereignty, we have the money. What we lack is the political will.
Q&A Section
Q1: What is the difference between a Job Guarantee and welfare?
A Job Guarantee offers meaningful paid work, while welfare offers subsistence support. One empowers, the other supports dependence.
Q2: Will a Job Guarantee cause inflation?
No. It uses idle resources and pays fixed wages. It stabilises inflation by anchoring price and wage expectations.
Q3: How is this funded?
Through Australia’s sovereign currency, the government creates the money, constrained only by real capacity – not by revenue.
Question for Readers
Have you or someone you know beWhen stuck in insecure work or unemployment? How would a Job Guarantee have changed your life?
Call to Action
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This article was originally published on Social Justice Australia
Also by Denis Hay:
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Privatised job search providers have been disastrous for helping unemployed people into work. The Commonwealth Employment Service did much better But the disappearance of the job ad has been one of the biggest changes to accessing work. The old CES had boards which individuals could check for positions vacant that appealed to them. And the Saturday papers had pages of vacancies.
Nowadays, you can have a look through filtered vacancies on the computerised workforce Australia website. Jobs are categorised in line with the ABS sectors which are not very helpful. Is a bush regenerator part of “agriculture, forestry and fisheries” for example. Where I live, my location does not align well with Southern Tablelands, Illawarra and South Coast or Southwestern Sydney.
Often, when you do find something relevant, you are limited to filling out a form which does not reflect your expertise and experience. And you very rarely hear back.
While employers say they cannot find the right workers, the people who want jobs are unable to find the vacancies that are relevant to their skills or needs
Bring back the CES, dump all those agencies that cost a lot and do very little.
The main problem we have is the 1% who do not want to make things better for those below them – they just don’t care. Until we have an election system whereby political donations for “favours” are outlawed and every candidate has a ceiling on their advertising spend, it will ever be thus.
“there aren’t enough decent jobs” Just what is a decent job? Puting that to one side, my father always told me any job is better than no job, once you are in the workforce it widens your scope, increasing your chances to improve.
I am impressed with the Canadian Universal Basic Income (UBI) proposal that has now been fully analysed and shown to be better value than unemplopyment benefits because the demand for health services is reduced so much that this saving off-sets completely the cost of the UBI programme.
Perhaps a joint UBI plus Job Guarantee could be considered. However, this would change the emphasis of UBi from recipent driven to government agency driven which may be fatal. Certainly I amn not proposing the Aboriginal Jobs Model.