Ms Tranter is entitled to talk her own book, or that of her interest group, just as the rest of us are entitled to ignore her, or start talking about our own problems.

A few reality checks. Ms Tranter massaged the ABS data to prove that youth employment here is higher than the official figure, which is fair enough. Everyone does it. But for proper comparison she should do the same to the other countries she compares us with. Then she might find her cherised comparisons vanish.

In any case, there have been higher rates of youth unemployment ever since I was a youth, which is a long time ago. The simple reason for this that those starting out in the workforce take time to become established. However, the vast bulk eventually do get jobs and stay in employment. As they usually have no family commitments, their time out of work is not as great a tragedy as it could have been.

The real problem is those over 50 or 55 may be who are tossed out of work, through no fault of their own, and cannot get back in. Employers simply do not hire people past their mid-50s, unless they are coming from another job. If Ms Trantor would stop using dubious comparisons to beat us up over youth unemployment and check the stats on long term old person unemployment, she might then discover some real problems.

Curmudgeon, while it is indeed a waste when the over 50's are unemployable, this is a fairly self centred view to take. By this stage in life people have had a chance to accrue assets, be a part of the community, establish a sense of self worth.
For a young person who is never able to find a job - or not one that lasts longer than a few months here or there - there are no such positives.
The longer this persists, the more unemployable they become. They have no money behind them, no friendships that are established through work and socialising (which costs money!), no confidence to meet a partner or raise a family. It is very different.

Thanks Kellie Tranter for a thoughtful consideration of the London riots and the Occupy Wall Street movement, the "problem of juvenile delinquency", and for a sober take on the current global crises, without the "shades" or rose-tinted glasses or rational optimism.
Young people in the West are equivalent to canary's in mine shafts, emergent as they are from their long formative stages of innocence, naivety, conditioning and regulation; hapless with the idealism, disingenuous or cynical, lavished upon them by their doting parents--half of whom, long-since consumed themselves with disillusionment, recommend their sons and daughters to the world as though the one they've prepared them for was ever more than a figment of their imaginations, or the bald lies their parents told them.
Though in defence of canny parents; they know of no other world and only want their kids to make the best of it.
Nevertheless, life does indeed suck for young people generally nurtured on instant gratification and over-consumption, and taught to aspire to their own petty empires by the gloating generations that made the most of the postwar boom; or worse, by their own contemporaries lucky enough to have won a place at the table and so to assume their own condescending-gaze over the "losers" and "malcontents" and marginalia of the system.
I'm an over-50, Curmudgeon, and I agree with NaomiMelb, that the over-50's with decades of lucrative remuneration behind them ought to be retired and their jobs inherited by the young.
We have a system wherein the real wealth is held by corporate and family dynasties. Or otherwise by affluent seniors, or the elderly--increasingly squandered away on extending their lives, ad nauseam, and making futile gestures at enhancing their often useless and wretched existence beyond all reason or decency, or sustainability, or consideration of the social renewal they eat-up and turn to dust.
There comes a point when the older generation is "justly" a hated burden to its sons (Montaigne new this, even if Russell didn't), and resentment is building.

NaomiMelb - of course its self-centred, just as the article is ridiculously self-centred, that was the point..

As for the accusation itself you are assuming that one problem is worse than the other. So how many youths never get into the workforce? In Greece that would certainly be a problem but then unemployment at all ages would be a problem there. But how many hard-core long term unemployed are there in Australia?

Once you answer that question, you have the problem that the over-50s long term unemployed, a much larger group, usually still have family commitments. In addition, the long-term youth unemployment issue can be fixed by intervention (mostly). The long-term older person unemployment problem is intractable..

Squeers - I agree we should surrender our jobs to young people, who would do it so much better, and we should go off and be old somewhere with no money.. simple really..

With true national unemployment in Australia running at 10.3% instead of the fabricated ABS result of 5.1% perhaps the reality of our 'Strong economy' will be exposed for what it really is, 'In serious trouble'.

With real unemployment at or above 10% it goes a long way to explain why consumer spending, poor stock market activity and almost zero credit growth and continuing corporate lay-offs are occurring.

The RBA board should have their heads read, they need a swift kick up the proverbial as should the ABS and Government officials who spruik these false figures.

Most importantly the media should be taken to task over its pitiful journalistic integrity, a little investigation often goes a long way.

"I agree we should surrender our jobs to young people, who would do it so much better, and we should go off and be old somewhere with no money.. simple really.."
Ironic I presume, Curmudgeon? but I'm deadly serious. And it's not just about the elderly, it's also a problem of celebrity, for instance all the cricket and football heroes of the past who made their squillions but still get life-time jobs commentating or doing the weather or otherwise taking jobs they're not even trained for from young people who have useless university degrees. Instead of still rewarding and lauding dear old Richie Benaud in his dotage, we should be telling him to move over, while Wally shouldn't have got Weather Man in the first place!
In a society and a world of limited means the over fifties should be living modestly, not setting a standard of profligate behaviour many young people can only covet and dream about! I'm content with a modest life and don't want for more. One of the things that comes with age and wisdom (they don't always come together alas) is the realisation that the trappings of wealth are more a burden than anything else, and that the simple pleasures of life, and being able to enjoy them unmolested and without guilt, are worth any number of face-lifts or round-the-world cruises. There's an "economy of life" too that's been long since neglected and lost. While contemplating the inevitability of death with equanimity, even as a blessed release, is far more dignified than seeking to prolong life immoderately, or worse, pretending, prolonging and parodying youth.