78% of Former Australian Ansett Staff Employed: Survey
Asia Pulse
78% of Former Australian Ansett Staff Employed: Survey
MELBOURNE, Dec 17 Asia Pulse - About 78 per cent of former Ansett employees have been employed since the airline collapsed, according to a new survey.
The study commissioned by the Victorian government polled 649 of the 12,500 Ansett employees who were retrenched between September 2001 and July 2002.
About 78 per cent of the respondents had found some work by the time the survey was conducted in August.
Of those, 26 per cent had found a new job before finishing at Ansett, nearly half had found employment within a month and 75 per cent within two months.
About eight per cent left the labour force and were no longer looking for work.
Almost a third had started some form of training or studies.
Half of those surveyed said they had had more than one job since being retrenched, with the first job generally paying less than their role at Ansett.
Victoria was the hardest hit by the retrenchments, accounting for approximately 40 per cent of the total number of jobs losses.
The Melbourne suburbs of Sunbury, Tullamarine, Taylors Lakes and Essendon were the five most affected localities nationally.
Victorian Treasurer John Brumby said the results would help improve assistance programs for retrenched workers in all industries.
"This survey following the biggest retrenchment in Australia's history will help Victorian and other governments improve services provided to retrenched workers," he said.
Mr Brumby said the government would commission a follow-up study in 18 months time to gauge the workers' success in finding secure employment.
The study was undertaken by Professor Michael Webber of the University of Melbourne and Sally Weller of the Centre for Strategic Economic Studies at Victoria University.
ASIA PULSE