BY SIMONE KEALY

The challenge of finding a job after graduation just got harder. 2020 dragged Australia into its first recession in three-decades, meaning more graduates will struggle to kickstart their careers. 

During 2020, Australia's GDP fell by 7 per cent from the previous financial year, due in-part to the restrictions put in place to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.

Students were among the hardest hit, with disruption to courses, significant job losses in the university sectors, and uncertainty about future employment.

Compared to 40 per cent of all Australians losing their jobs during the pandemic, 60 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds either lost their jobs or had their pay or hours cut.

The 2020-2021 federal budget announced $4 billion dedicated to new measures designed to help young people find employment. 

Before 2020, the last time a recession occurred was in 1991, when Australia’s GDP fell by 1.7 per cent and the unemployment rate peaked at 10.8 per cent.

Much like the more recent recession, students were significantly affected, with the unemployment rate for those aged 20 to 24 reaching 17 per cent.

MOJO News spoke to three university graduates of the early 1990s about the challenges of tackling the job market amid a recession.

After graduating from Monash University in 1992, Richard Gruppetta struggled to find a job in Australia.

“It was awful. I thought, why is this happening to me now?

“The news media, daily, for two years before I graduated was all about how people were losing jobs, [there were] lines of people applying for jobs,” he said.

Mr Gruppetta remembers the Japanese department store, Daimaru, had just opened in Melbourne. It was offering 200 retail jobs and received around 5000 applications.

“Most graduates from Monash – these are graduates with arts degrees, law degrees, commerce degrees – were getting jobs at David Jones," he said.

“It felt very unfair.”

Mr Gruppetta felt he might have to re-evaluate his career aspirations.

Fortunately, majoring in Japanese and business studies gave Mr Gruppetta the opportunity to escape the stagnating Melbourne job market and apply for work in Japan.

“I moved to an economy where there were plenty of jobs going, and I got the job pretty quickly,” Mr Gruppetta said.

“[But] I had to leave Melbourne, which I didn’t want to do.”

According to former Reserve Bank Governor, Ian Macfarlane, countries such as Japan, as well as Denmark, France and the United States, experienced a less-severe recession than Australia.

Although Mr Gruppetta wanted to stay in Melbourne, he said he is glad he took the plunge and moved to Japan. Almost three decades on, he is now the principal for international advisory firm, Laneway Consulting.

His advice to this year’s graduates?

“Think creatively about your career options. It might be doing that extra year of study... It could be doing as best you can to get an internship in any spare time,” he said.

“It’s all about experience and exposure.”

In the late 1980s, Sharon McCudden enrolled in a double degree in marketing and accounting at Swinburne University.

“We all had that rose-coloured glasses approach when we first started uni,” she said.

By 1991, Ms McCudden was quickly accepted into a graduate program at the American-owned confectionery and pet food giant, Mars Inc.

She attributes her good fortune to doing a year of co-operative education or ‘co-op’ within her degree, which gave her work experience in the marketing industry.

“The graduate program and the co-op year probably shielded me from [the recession]," she said.

“It certainly allowed me to stand out from the pack.”

But unlike in 1991, Ms McCudden has not been as lucky during Australia’s current recession, having recently been made redundant from her product manager role at World Vision.

“It didn’t affect me back in ‘91 but it’s affecting me now… it’s almost come full circle,” she said.

“It’s pretty shattering.”    

Despite losing her job alongside seven other colleagues in her department, Ms McCudden said she understands why job cuts are being made.

“The fact that they have to take costs out of the business means that more funds can go to the field and help kids,” she said.

“I understand the rationale for it.”

Ms McCudden recently found another position at the organisation. She said her main fears during this economic crisis are for her childrens' futures.

“I have two older children now, who I look at and think, 'my God it’s going to be hard for you to get a job', or 'it’s going to be hard for you to buy a house,'” she said.

“There will be opportunities that come out of this. Keep your eyes open...don’t necessarily be pigeon-holing yourself into a particular role or discipline.”

A student in the early 1990s, Imogen Randell did not pigeon-hole herself when it came to job opportunities.

Taking up a casual job in her second year with a market research company allowed Ms Randell to gain experience in an industry she was interested in.

“It was fun because it was all uni students doing it...we would go out afterwards and have a lot of fun together,” she said.

“The company was quite small that we were working for. We could get to know the management.” 

When she graduated in 1991 with a Bachelor of Business and Marketing from Swinburne University, Ms Randell was accepted into a graduate program with the same market research company.

“I’d demonstrated that I could work and that I had a work ethic, that I could get along with people and that allowed me then to get a foot in the door.”

She said her experience gave her an advantage over other students who were struggling to find work.

“Applying [for those jobs] where there’s 500 people for five roles, the odds were going to be against me.”

Ms Randell stayed in market research and is now CEO at Quantum Market Research and Hall & Partners.

“I genuinely enjoy the camaraderie and being a conduit and a story-teller,” she said.

Ms Randell said recovering from the most recent recession will be more challenging than what she believes was the 1990's “financial blip”.

“There will be silver-linings down the track for Victorians, but perhaps we’re not quite there yet,” she said.

“[But] people will rise through this.”