Evaluation of the Australian Wage Subsidy Special Youth ...

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showed employment entry flows for GTA-OTJ, but there was no modelling of
employment outcomes. Stretton (1982, 1984) found that GTA-OTJ performed better on
post-programme employment than training in EPUY 6 , but was no different to SYETP.
Baker (1984) also found that GTA-OTJ performed better than EPUY, and no different to
SYETP. Before modelling, it was found that 58.9 per cent of GTA were in continuous
full-time work, made up of 45.4 per cent retained in their placement job and 13.5 per cent
not retained, with 29.8 per cent having non-continuous full-time work, while the
estimated probability for continuous full-time employment after the programme for those
with 17 weeks of unemployment was 0.569 (Baker (1984) p19 Table 5.2, p47 Table A8,
p48 Table A10). Rao and Jones (1986) estimated post-programme full-time continuous
employment chances for GTA-OTJ 1981-1983 relative to their quasi-control group as
being 59.8 per cent for the least disadvantaged and 14.6 per cent for the most
disadvantaged. This positive employment effect was greater than that found for SYETP.
2.1.3 Jobstart
Jobstart began in December 1985, when SYETP and the AWSS ended by being
subsumed into the new Jobstart programme as all labour market programmes were
restructured (Ross (1988) p34 footnote 9). The specialist programmes, ‘Special Needs
Job Sector Subsidy’ and ‘Disabled on-the-job subsidy’, were also merged into Jobstart
(Kesteven (1987): 45). All aspects of SYETP, including the Commonwealth SYETP, as
described later in the section about SYETP, turned up as components in Jobstart. At
inception, Jobstart had two key components, private sector Jobstart and Commonwealth
Jobstart. The ‘Commonwealth Work Experience programme’ was identical to
Commonwealth SYETP – it lasted for 17 weeks subsidy, and was limited to 15-24 year
olds, with the department fully reimbursed for the wage paid to the placement. However,
in May 1987 the Commonwealth component ceased. After this, Private Sector Jobstart
became synonymous with the term Jobstart.
Eligible groups for Jobstart were divided into two: Jobstart basic rates applied to those
unemployed for 6 of the last 9 months, while Jobstart Special rates applied to those long-
6 Education Programme for Unemployed Youth; an Australian training program part of NEAT; consisting
of courses aimed to improve basic literacy, numeracy and social skills.