Help for 110 jobseekers

A new State-Government funded, Camberwell-based employment program has been created to find work for 110 jobseekers in the inner eastern suburbs.

KYM Peopleworks in Camberwell has been contracted by the Government to help local unemployed people — particularly those in groups that fall outside the main focus of Federal Government employment programs — to find work this year.

The Camberwell program is part of the State Government's Community Business Employment (CBE) initiative that funds community groups, industry bodies and businesses to deliver employment-placement services to unemployed people aged 15–24, over 45, and from non-English-speaking backgrounds.

"The CBE program funds community-based groups that can use their local knowledge, local experience and local networks to find meaningful employment opportunities to jobseeking Victorians," the Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, Mark Birrell, said.

"The program has delivered 56,000 unemployed Victorians into work since 1994.

"The target for 1999 is to help another 10,000 people to find work and KYM Peopleworks, as one of a network of agencies working throughout Victoria as part of the CBE program, will play an important role in achieving that goal."

Mr Birrell said that, although the unemployment rate in the inner eastern suburbs stood at 5.8 per cent — well below both the national and Melbourne averages — the KYM Peopleworks program was part of a critical early intervention strategy to assist jobseekers before they became long-term unemployed.

(News Release, Office of the Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, March 17, 1999)