Understanding contract/seasonal employment potential in regions with high youth unemployment: Investigating job seekers’ viewpoints

This research brief discusses results from a project that aimed to improve our understanding of the motivations and decision-making behind young peoples’ decisions to engage or not to engage with seasonal work, as well as the perceptions of employers towards those job seekers’ choices. As past debates have mainly been fuelled by speculations about young job seekers’ motives, direct insights could help identify key determinants behind those choices, and prove critical in improving work prospects in regions and industries where young job seekers coexist with significant casual and seasonal labour shortages. The project was undertaken in three regions (Darwin, Cairns and Burnie), encompassed two industries (hospitality and harvest labour), and involved testing a survey instrument exploring respondents’ descriptions of their own goals, decisions and reactions to pre-formulated scenarios.