Many good suggestions here, do it while the government has the money.
Local councils have hundreds of jobs that they do not have the money
to undertake. Sure many of them are titivating the appearance of the
town, but even that has the effect of improving the spirit of the community.
Just curbing and guttering many streets that otherwise never would be
done would be a good thing.

Ask the councils I am sure they would come up with a list as long as your arm.

I remember the work for the dole in the 70's. The Burdekin Shire Council got a team of women together to paint the Road Xings & anything else that needed painting in the Shire. They worked themselves out of a job in 6 months & the Union complained that they were, "breaking down conditions." (actually doing something.) They were sacked because the Council Workers were going to go on strike. They had been put to shame & the whole town gave them a hard time over it.

Actually I like the Singapore Work for the dole system. In Singapore everybody has to be doing something. Low skilled go around & wipe all the bench seats, Pick up any rubbish they can find in the streets, etc. That's a bit of a competition. Skilled people are placed with firms until they find employment. People with higher education mentor any students who are failing subjects. Mind you if the Government finds you a job, you dam well go, or it's the rattan. The big advantage with Singapore is, of course, is that it's a tiny island.

There is a problem with some low skilled people in Australia who are permanently on the dole. Some of these people have IQ are around the 50 to 60 mark due to the dilution of the Gene pool. Unfortunately there is not much that can be done for them. I know, That's Politically inappropriate, never the less, true. Sometime, sooner or later we have to take our heads out of the sand & face that reality.

At he other end of the scale there are others who think they are too good to do anything other than sit in an office & take up space. They wouldn't lower themselves to something below their supposed station in life.

No matter which way you go about it the work for the dole will be an extra cost. Those people painting x crossing signs on roads have to be protected from traffic, stop go man etc which is a certified job. Every thing comes down to cost. That means the work for the dole will have to be a budgeted amount.
I feel it will be easier said than done. Rules can't be disregarded because these people are on the dole.

rehctub,
"The math is simple, take the basic wage rate, divide it into the dollar amount, gives you a number of hours and that's the hours that MUST BE WORKED during that fortnight."
Sounds good but it cannot work.
The Newstart recipients are already loving it.
Newstart allowance for a single person $501.00 p/f or $250.50 p/W
Average weekly wage in Australia $1105.00P/w
The math is 1105/38 hours = hourly rate of $29.00P/H
$250.00/29 hours = 8.6 hours a week working for the dole
This is because UN conventions and the unions have already indicated High court challenges if any other scale is used.
So where the current WFTD schedule is a daily 4 to 5 hours it will have to be reduced to 8,6 hours.

Jayb said;
Skilled people are placed with firms until they find employment.

Not necessarily skilled people, but someone on the dole could be
allocated to a company and they just stay on site and if an odd job
comes up the manager can ask the dolee to do that odd job.
After a period, the manager might find that he is a useful employee
and offer him a job.
Would have to be some rules to avoid it being fiddled but it would give
him some work experience and he would get to know people in the job.

Advances in technology are wiping out more and more jobs so there are going to be more and more people out of work.

One solution is reducing the working week and issuing employment cards to ensure that no one has two jobs at the same time.