Long term unemployment is growing and the Covid restrictions and lockdowns are making it ten times worse.

I sometimes do pro bono work for the long-term unemployed and their desperation is palpable and heart-rending.

In April last year, before the mass lockdowns, a report found nearly half a million people had received unemployment payments for a year or more.

The ACOSS ‘Faces of Unemployment’ report, revealed “disturbing growth” in the share of job seekers in long term unemployment.

At the end of 2019 almost two-thirds (64 per cent) of the 757,000 people receiving unemployment payments had been doing so for more than a year.

That compares with 49 per cent in 2009 and fewer than 40 per cent during the mid-1990s.

Onerous compliance rules for those receiving unemployment benefits have been put ahead of practical help to get a job.

The report said 41 per cent receiving unemployment payments had a disability, 11 per cent were sole parents and almost half were aged over 45 years.