Unemployed workers’ experiences of Australian employment services appointments

This research examines the experiences of unemployed workers at Australian employment services appointments and whether these experiences drive the more than three million missed appointments each year. The research in five publications observes for many unemployed workers, employment service appointments are both useless and harmful and that practices such as ‘parking’ and ‘creaming’ are pervasive. It suggests that conflating attitudes towards employment with responses to poor-quality services is a policy failure. It develops a rating scale to help unemployed workers identify and select providers that will help them obtain a job and relieve the harm of unemployment.