Evaluation of the Australian Wage Subsidy Special Youth ...

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For those aged over 45 and similarly long-term unemployed, an ‘extended AWSS’ was
available, at $125 per week for up to 52 weeks.
Edwards (1987) p86 notes that there were limitations on the proportion of the employer’s
workforce which could be employed under all/any wage subsidy programmes from the
Federal government and cites the guidelines to CES 5 as stating that at any one time, a
single physical location of factory, shop or office with 1-3 staff could have 1 placement;
while those with 4-7 staff could have 2 placements; for those with 8-100 staff, not more
than 25 per cent of staff could be placements; and for those with more than 100 staff not
more than 10 per cent of staff could be placements. This would have limited both AWSS
and SYETP placements. Routley (1984) indicates that in the first four months of
operation in 1983, 1,642 of the eligible target group were approved for placements.
Approvals then rose to 15,353 over 12 months in 1983/4 and then 14,388 in 1984/5
(Edwards (1987) p88 Table 7.1, sourced from DEIR (1985) Annual Report figures). Ross
(1988) p48 shows that expenditure on AWSS rose with the increase in placements: for
the corresponding initial 4 month period to June 30 1982/3 the expenditure was
$0.4million in current prices, while in 1983/4 it rose to $23.4 million, and 1984/5 to
$35.1million, before $25.4 million in the part of the final year of operation to December
1985.
An evaluation report was due to be made for AWSS in 1985 (Routley (1984)). However
this never achieved publication. Ross (1988) p48 Charts 1 and 2 and appendix Table of
Acronyms , noted that having started in March 1983, in December 1985 the programme
had already ended by being subsumed into Jobstart. An evaluation for AWSS is not
separately listed amongst the BLMR evaluations listed in Mckay and Hope (1986)
Attachment A pp19-21, and it is likely the evaluation was sidelined with the knowledge
that policy interests had already determined the programme, at least in name, would end.
Although no general analysis of AWSS was made, Edwards (1987) examined the impact
for the Wollongong and Newcastle regions of New South Wales using a survey of firms
5 Department of Employment and Industrial Relation (1984) Adult Wage Subsidy Scheme in CES
Operating Manual, Volume 6 section 5; Volume 7.