With unemployment at an historic low, one could be forgiven for wondering at the sanity of this bold statement. However, Ms Credlin ponders how it's possible to have close to half a million people receiving unemployment benefits, with over half a million jobs being advertised. Adding two and two and reaching 134, Ms Credlin states that "for too long, Australians have been job snobs," and suggests part of this problem is people with degrees being "too proud" to be labourers, or wait tables, while searching for "their perfect gig."

Reading articles like this is exasperating. It panders to the traditionally LNP voter base, seemingly corroborating pre-existing stereotypes of the lazy dole-bludger and painting everyone who is experiencing unemployment with the same, generic brushstrokes.

But the truth of the matter is, unemployment is a hugely complex issue that cannot be dismissed with a wave of the hand as simply being the result of lazy and job-snobby jobseekers unwilling to take on the jobs that are available.

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There are currently just under a million people receiving unemployment benefits. Of those people, about half of them are actually classified as "non-jobseekers" and 32 per cent are assessed as having only a "partial capacity to work," which represents the significant tightening of eligibility criteria to receive Disability Support Pension. This is a very real problem when using basic maths to try solve the job vacancy issues - there may be 480,000 jobs available at the moment, but they aren't necessarily going to be suitable for those receiving Jobseeker payment.

If we look at the jobs that Ms Credlin is particularly worried about, namely hospitality, tourism and retail, the apparent dearth of applications is unsurprising. During COVID lockdowns, these industries were hit hard, and workers were told to retrain and look elsewhere for work, which they did. The recent PwC Hopes and Fears Survey indicated job security is one of the primary concerns we hold, with 56 per cent of Australians anticipating poor stability and long-term employment in the future. It's really not about being "job snobs". It's about being fearful for the future after suffering through a global pandemic.

We've heard a lot from businesses about the challenges of hiring staff, but there are also many challenges for people looking for work - especially if they have a disability. In fact, 44.9 per cent of people with a disability found that their own ill health/disability presented a barrier to finding work. However, regardless of whether a person had a disability, people still experienced significant barriers to finding work including lacking the necessary skills/education, being considered too old, lacking sufficient work experience, accessibility to child-care, and family responsibilities. Finding work is not just a matter of submitting a résumé - the hirer has to assess your application and then decide whether to interview you.

Ms Credlin talked about applying for "lower-level" jobs and quashing one's pride to accept them, but she gives no consideration to the challenge of actually finding "lower-level" work when you are qualified in another area. Farmers don't want accountants picking fruit - the job advertisements for these roles ask for existing skills and experience, mechanical aptitude, own transport (have you seen petrol prices?), and physically fit applicants. If 32 per cent of these jobseekers have a disability, this will likely preclude them from this physically demanding work, and if half of the Jobseeker recipients aren't actually Jobseekers at all, this further reduces the recruitment pool. From the pool that remains, you need to have someone who is within hailing distance of remote locations, or with no family responsibilities at home, physically able (and probably young) etc. And even if you are willing, the hirer has to choose to hire you. If your work history and skill set are not relevant, if you are deemed likely to accept another, more suitable, job as soon as its offered, the hirer is up the creek again. That's a risk few hirers will accept and the reason why backpackers were so well-suited to the work.

So, in answer to the question, how can we have so many jobs to fill, I invite Ms Credlin to consider the experience of the people behind the numbers and the responsibility of the hirers to adapt to the changing market. Ms Credlin's simple maths just doesn't add up.