When Carol Perkins lost her job as an executive assistant, she was confident it wouldn't take her long to find a similar role.
Key points:
Over 100,000 Australians facing barriers to employment are constantly struggling to find work
There are not enough entry-level jobs to help them re-enter the workforce
Anglicare Australia says mutual obligations need to be abandoned
But that was more than ten years ago.
In the time since, she's only managed to get temporary and short-term work, no permanent work.
I never imagined how difficult it would be to re-enter the workforce again, she told the ABC this week.
I've applied for hundreds of jobs, you know, and in the last 12 months I've had four interviews, which is very good, but nothing came of it.
I can't understand it because some of the jobs I'm going for, admin roles, even junior admin roles, I've been told, you know, 'You've got great skills but we've decided to go with someone else'.
Ms Perkins was in her 40s when she was made redundant. She's now in her mid-50s.
She said she left school at the end of year 10, as was common at the time, and the job search experience was radically different when she was in her 20s in the 1980s.
Back then, I'd go to the Commonwealth Employment Service and apply for a job and I remember once I was offered three jobs and they said, 'Which one do you want to work for?' she recalled.
So that's why, when I became redundant, I had no idea of the journey I'd be facing. I was in for a rude, rude shock.
She's done courses at TAFE in the last 10 years, and started her own business cleaning and de-cluttering peoples' homes, but she still relies on JobSeeker payments to live.
And there are thousands of Australians in a similar position to her.
It's the subject of a new report from Anglicare Australia.
