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Is it getting harder to find a job?

July 19, 2026 · 25 min

Show notes

After the 100th email auto reply, the AI application screening and writing the umpteenth cover letter of the week, the job hunt can feel like a real drain.

If you're feeling like it's harder to find a job now than last time you were looking you are not alone. A combination of people staying put, international forces and a tight economic market have all impacted the white collar worker world. And that's before we think about AI!

Despite unemployment numbers remaining pretty flat the Australian Bureau of Statistics found that in the first 3 months of this year one point one million people without a job wanted one, with one million available to start within four weeks. Job application numbers per role are up as well. Employment website Seek found that in May this year job advert numbers were down 4.5% on May last year, and that applications per job advert have gone up 5.5% in a year.

So what can we do if we need a gig? How do we prepare ourselves and our children for a rapidly changing world of work?

Lisa digs into the data and goes hunting for answers for you.

Guests:

Hari Hara Priya Kannan - Chief Data Scientist at The Demographics Group

Nic Cola - CEO of RMIT Online

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You can find more episodes of the This Working Life podcast with your on the job correspondent Lisa Leong on the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.

Please email us at [email protected] if you would like to get in touch, we read them all and love hearing from you!

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