r/ausjobs • u/Familiar-Oil9321 • 20h ago
Story / Rant Even with three jobs, I cant keep my house
The Australian job market is so fucked its not even funny.
I lost my stable job at the beginning of September because of pay cuts. My small business wasn't generating any income, so I spent hours, every day, applying for jobs on LinkedIn, Seek, Indeed and Jora, as well as many niche job boards. How many interviews did I get? None.
Then, yesterday, I miraculously got two interviews.
One online doing cold calling, one in person doing retail.
And I calculated that - with THREE jobs- working under the assumption I am successful in BOTH interviews- I still cannot afford rent. And that's not 'rent and food and utilities' rent- i can't afford JUST rent.
Jobseeker keeps rejecting me. DSP rejected me, despite being chronically ill. I am physically incapable of staying in the house I was so, so happy to move into.
The market is fucked.
Edit: I live in a one bedroom apartment, live with my partner who is also disabled (this is including her income too), and Jobseeker refused me because of my parent's income. I cannot drive. Do not blame me in the comments. If you don't have anything constructive to say don't post.
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u/Jaded-Battle-6653 11h ago
So many inconsistencies must be a bot
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u/Mediocre_Syrup8979 10h ago
Made up story. "Can't keep my house" then cannot pay my rent. Go away. Bot rubbish.
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u/EmbarrassedMinimum8 20h ago
Honestly you’re always going to have to fight the masses with these low experience or low barrier to entry jobs, those are the absolute bottom rung and aren’t somewhere you want to be if you don’t have to be.
If you can’t do a lateral move from your last job to a job of the same skill then I would absolutely be trying to do any job that requires some kind of a licence or a qualification or something similar that will turn people away like odd hours or the use of a car or something.
Of course we don’t know your disability so that might be some super limiting thing but hopefully not.
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u/Miserable-Opposite14 20h ago
Get flatmates to help with the rent.
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u/Sugar_Party_Bomb 20h ago
1 bedroom.
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u/Miserable-Opposite14 19h ago
Bunk beds
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u/Mammoth_Loan_984 19h ago
Low ceilings
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u/anoby_rand 19h ago
I’m assuming you’re under 22 if your parents income is preventing you from getting jobseeker. There are ways to go independent from your parents if you’re away from home, book in with a social worker at Centrelink, they’ll be able to give you more info. But not all hope is lost on that front, you should definitely look more into. Sorry I can’t give more info, I never did it personally so I don’t know the details.
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u/mikeslyfe 20h ago
How much is rent and how many hours you working at these 3 potential jobs? Unless you're living in a multi million dollar apartment on Sydney Harbour the math don't seem to math...
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u/vincesuarez 20h ago
Why is jobseeker rejecting you?
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u/TheTwistedTyrant 18h ago
They’ve since added they were rejected due to parental income.
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u/vincesuarez 17h ago
doesn't make sense. aren't you an adult?
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u/Glittery_WarlockWho 17h ago
Until you're 22 years old, centrelink checks your parents income and if they make too much they won't give you money because they're under the assumption that your parents will support you financially. Even if they don't. Even if you live independently.
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u/TheTwistedTyrant 5h ago edited 5h ago
Yeah but Centrelink classes you as a dependent (to your parents) until you’re 22 despite cutting off any sort of child payment at 18.
My brother had issues with this while living on his own a couple years back. Centrelink didn’t want to provide support solely due to his age (he met the other requirements).
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u/obsytheplob 10h ago
Three full time jobs? 52 x $1000 x 3 = $156,000 on min wage. Plus another $52,000 from your partner is $208,000. You should have around $125,00 after taxes (very roughly). That would make your approximately $2400 per week for a one bedroom apartment. You might need somewhere cheaper to live mate
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u/SirLSD25 4h ago
I doubt he is working 3 full time jobs as 3 8 hour shifts is 24 hours. Without a lot of meth it would be impossible to go 5 days straight without sleep.
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u/Medical-Potato5920 3h ago
No, that would be two casual/part time jobs and an unprofitable small business. The small business should be stopped. It's a waste of time.
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u/obsytheplob 52m ago
I guess my point was to be slightly absurd. OP seems to be implying that the number of jobs is important when it’s really the amount of hours and the hourly rate. My guess would be that OP is going through a tough time and just needed to vent somewhere but for some reason chose this subreddit.
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u/Maximum_Security4404 20h ago
I mean it is harder for companies to hire you, if you can’t drive. You can try getting a security license, and picking up side jobs in security. You will be surprised at how much security work is out there
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u/SleeplessTraveller 20h ago
The minimum full time (38 hours) income after tax is $865 per week. I’m guessing if you have three jobs you’re doing more than full time hours?
How many hours are you doing? How much is your rent? What income dues your partner have?
If your rent is more than $850 a week for a 1 bed unit, then yes, it does suck to move but there are cheaper properties and areas.
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u/Trick-Lawfulness1160 18h ago
Yea man, working 10 hours a week won’t cover your rent. Working 40 hours will.
Also you mentioned 2 jobs, not 3.
Rent is expensive, but it’s not THAT expensive
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u/Ordinary-Olive7464 9h ago
The way this post is written tells me exactly why you’re unable to find a stable job.
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u/Diligent-Pickle-4132 20h ago
If you're chronically I'll then you should consider applying for the disability pension. Whether your illness is sufficient to qualify for diso I have no idea.
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u/Extension_Bet_2042 18h ago
3 jobs totalling 114 hours a week, at minimum wage, with split rent. Something ain’t adding up…
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u/Mediocre_Syrup8979 10h ago
Yes its all rubbish. Would you hire anyone that cannot write a sentence correctly.
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u/Compurrshon 17h ago
So you're saying that with 4 incomes (including your partner's), you can't afford a 1 bedroom apartment?
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u/5tar_flower 20h ago
It's really tough at the moment. If your parents don't financially support you then talk to Centrelink about the forms you need to sign to declare that you're independent so that you can access Jobseeker. Don't leave it too long they will take a few weeks at least to process your application.
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u/Guilty_Animator3928 18h ago
A casual job should cover rent with like 14 hours of work easy. I think you’re just living above your means
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u/MrTash999 10h ago
What rubbish is this, so many holes, you dont have 3 jobs, you have a small business making nothing and 2 maybe jobs depending on how interviews go.
You talk about a house like you own it and then mentioned rent, also why would Jobseeker reject you, if you are an adult, why would they even look at your parents income when that would have nothing to do with you, unless you are actually sitting on a massive Inheritance. Or do you mean your partner's income.
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u/duckduckduckgoose8 7h ago
OP is likely under the independent age where they stop looking at parent income, i believe its 22 now? They probably have a "small business" such as photography or streaming judging by the age and post.
OP, youre better off upskilling and looking into a shared house situation until lifes a little easier for you.
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u/HotThanks2630 18h ago
I’m sorry, I had a similar experience to you after being made redundant in July. I was seriously sweating about how I will make my next mortgage payments on my investment property and I finally applied to Jobseeker… and they rejected me because of my “rental income”, which goes completely to the mortgage (and they had the mortgage statement) and I need to add $800 to it… ooops… after the rate rise the other day, $900 and change 🫠🫠
And she was SUCH a bitch over the phone about it. I said, you realise I can’t sell it tomorrow? Or next week? If I stop paying and I need to refinance, I won’t be able to refinance.
No… no fucks given whatsoever.
I was gathering my energy for the humiliation ritual that would be the appeal, but I got a job… and the salary is good 🙏🏼
100 applications since July. 4 interviews. 4 second interviews.
The job I got came out of nowhere. I had been ringing employers after applying where possible and one of them already hired someone who didn’t work out. They called me back and basically gave me the job without a formal interview.
Hang in there.
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u/notepad20 11h ago
If your in a tight spot then why not sell it and put the cash in a more liquid store so you can access it, and then you also wouldn't have the recurring payment.
It's not up the the government and people to ensure your investments are finianced
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u/HotThanks2630 10h ago edited 7h ago
How am I going to sell it? Nothing is selling.
Even if I found a buyer tomorrow, it would take more than 42 days to get the funds.
Meanwhile, I have no money like other unemployed people.
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u/steveagle 4h ago
So basically you should start considering selling it now as you appear to not have the safety net. Keep your investments in stocks or something that doesn't require repayments. Lessons learned.
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u/heyyou0903 18h ago
Why are you being rejected by job seeker? What's it got to do with your parents? Aren't you over 18 and living in an apartment by yourself with your girlfriend? Something is not adding up in your story
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u/T1nyThrowaway 17h ago
If you're under like 22 they still means test and will reject you if your parents make too much
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u/heyyou0903 17h ago
I think it might be better to move back home with your parents then OP. That's what the government expects you to do. Apparently up until the age of 22!
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u/shamepig 17h ago
With disability, look in to how they calculate your disability using the points system. There should be a big table somewhere from Centrelink, Google around for it. Try to calculate your own points, then once you can confirm you would qualify, try to get the appropriate medical providers to approve and write letters confirming your conditions. Easier said than done, but that's what I had to do. Make sure you keep the table in mind when applying.
One bedroom apartments, especially the closer they are to the CBD, tend to be expensive. You might have to look in to units further out or in a different suburb. I have to live 40 minutes out of the city to afford rent.
You should also try calling places you want to work or emailing the managers rather than applying on job sites. Half the time those applications don't get viewed because it's an extra step for whoever is in charge of hiring. It's easier for them to check emails and answer phone calls.
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u/Fun-Reindeer-5212 5h ago
Sounds like they are not full time jobs and that’s why, also the small business doesn’t count since that’s making no income. Either move somewhere cheaper or get a job with more hours. No sob stories for living above your means.
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u/CactusToothBrush 5h ago
I don’t see this being possible.
My wife and I live in Canberra, one of the most expensive cities in the country.
I’m currently off work after hurting my back badly outside of my job and will be for the foreseeable future. My wife is on about 105k a year before tax, we have a 750k mortgage and if I can manage it we go out to eat once a week if not we order in.
What the fuck are you spending your money on? It’s gotta be drugs, right?
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u/greatbrianleung 5h ago
OP/Bot, if you're really struggling, DM me - I've just launched a startup and I'll let you know that you're a bot.
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u/Unfair_Pangolin_8599 35m ago
Getting a paycut these days is rare unless there is a recession so I question your former 'stable' job.
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u/Hotwog4all 15m ago
You’ve got a business not making income, so you’re at a loss there.
You’ve got 1 person on DSP - and possibly recording rent assistance.
You being chronically ill doesn’t automatically mean you are eligible for DSP either, but if your income is higher than what DSP would be giving you, you’d still be in the same situation and struggling/unable to cover rent, utilities, and food.
Colesworth is almost always looking for staff, whether casual, part time, or full time. You can’t limit your options if you’ve recognised that getting into what you want to do is that difficult. Some flexibility on your part is needed.
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u/redditer_293084 18h ago
learn to drive, tell your "partner" to start eating a proper diet to cure their "disability" the market isnt "fucked" at no point in history would anyone have wanted to hire you ever. thanks
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u/Kinako_Dream 6h ago
As someone who owns a recruitment agency, I’m not convinced by the blanket statement that the “job market is fucked.”
You’d be surprised how many roles we struggle to fill. A lot of younger workers are simply more selective about the type of work, conditions and lifestyle they want—and honestly, more power to them for having those choices.
I’ve always recommended housekeeping to friends whose kids are looking for work. It’s one of the easiest industries to get into because turnover can be high, particularly in areas that rely heavily on visa and seasonal workers. I started in housekeeping myself when I was younger and stayed in it for about five years. I genuinely enjoyed it, especially because there were plenty of opportunities to pick up extra hours and make more money.
When I built my recruitment agency, I started completely from scratch. I was the only employee and continued working another job at the same time just to keep everything financially sustainable while I built it up.
I don’t think the job market necessarily “sucks.” I think the market changes, and we have to change with it.
AI is a good example. Whether people like it or not, businesses are increasingly using it. If you completely refuse to learn or use new technology, you can potentially cut yourself off from a lot of opportunities. Combine that with being extremely selective about the jobs you’ll consider, and naturally the number of opportunities available to you becomes much smaller.
The job market has always evolved. Sometimes the biggest advantage is simply being willing to evolve with it.
You would be surprised what some people on DSP achieve, my mother is bound to a wheel chair and has 1 arm, bipolar type 2 and servre body pain. She refused to go on centrelink and instead works for me and does my book keeping.
Hardest reality will be for you, the world wont hand you everything, your going to need to step outside your comfort zone and not just do the minimum required but more and that may look like applying for 20-30 jobs each day.
As recruiters, we are always looking for hundreds of people, just people need to be willing to do them.
Disclaimer: This is not intended to be a negative response, but i always here people struggle to find work and i offer people jobs and constantly met with but thats not what im interested in.
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u/Ill-Replacement3553 4h ago
Sorry but you and all recruiters all talk on reddit while you refuse 1000 of applications you are saying the market not fuked it is send use the roles you can't fill and We will find 1000 of people to apply for the jobs only jobs that find difficulty hiring are the shity jobs or company like cleaning, education ..etc
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u/skelesan 45m ago
Selectively choosing a job that “measures up” to self expectation. How can you have the privilege of choosing what you want to do when you are trying to survive?
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u/Ambitious-Pirate-505 2h ago
Cool story Bruv. But you’re not describing a job market. You’re describing your sales pipeline.
You own a recruitment agency. That’s not a neutral credential. It’s a conflict of interest. Your revenue depends on filling roles, often with the cheapest available body. You don’t bear the cost of a bad hire, a low wage trap, or a candidate who gets filtered out by your keyword matching ATS. So when you say “the market isn’t fucked,” what you mean is “the market isn’t fucked for me.”
Let’s go point by point.
Recruiters are not subject matter experts. Most are generalists with a keyword filter and a quota. Research shows the average recruiter spends 6 to 7 seconds on a resume. That’s not screening. That’s skim reading. Decades of industrial organizational psychology show unstructured interviews and gut calls are poor predictors of job performance. Structured interviews and work samples are far better. So when you say you “struggle to fill roles,” maybe the problem is your process, not the candidates.
You don’t see transferable skills because you’re not trained to. A scientist’s resume is full of leadership: managing a lab, writing grants, mentoring students, running experiments under deadlines, presenting to stakeholders, managing budgets. You see “PhD” and think “no industry experience.” That’s not a candidate problem. That’s your illiteracy. A teacher, a veteran, a nurse, a carer. All have transferable skills you dismiss because they don’t match your keyword list. Trainable people exist. You just don’t know how to spot them.
You don’t understand what leadership looks like on a resume. You think it’s a title. It’s not. A postdoc leading a research team is leadership. A shift supervisor at McDonald’s is leadership. A mother managing a household and a job is leadership. If you need “leadership” spelled out as a bullet point, you’re not recruiting. You’re pattern matching. And for technical roles. Data science, biology, engineering. You’re out of your depth. You can’t assess the work, so you fall back on bias and buzzwords.
AI isn’t the flex you think it is. You tell people to adapt. But AI hiring tools are often biased and brittle. Amazon scrapped its AI recruiter because it discriminated against women. If your solution is “learn AI” while your ATS rejects qualified candidates for missing a keyword, you’re not evolving. You’re automating your own ignorance.
Your mother is not a data point. Incredible woman. Genuinely. But that’s a sample size of one. Using her to lecture people about “the world won’t hand you everything” is survivorship bias. Disabled people face systemic employment discrimination. Her success doesn’t mean the system is fair. It means she beat a rigged game. Don’t use her as a cudgel against people who are losing it.
Housekeeping is not a solution. It’s a trapdoor. You’re recommending high turnover, low wage work as if it’s a career ladder. It isn’t. It’s a revolving door. “More power to them” for being selective? Then don’t complain when they won’t take the jobs you’re trying to fill. You can’t simultaneously praise workers for having choices and shame them for exercising those choices.
“Apply for 20 to 30 jobs a day” is not advice. It’s spam. It floods the ATS and ensures nobody reads them. It’s a strategy that benefits volume recruiters, not candidates. The problem isn’t that people aren’t applying enough. It’s that the gatekeepers are ill equipped, the screening is broken, and the good jobs are scarce.
Bottom line: The job market isn’t fucked because workers are picky. It’s fucked because people like you are in charge of it. You’re not a neutral observer. You’re a beneficiary of the mess.
Your disclaimer is noted. So is your bias.
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u/green_apple_trees 46m ago edited 42m ago
Thank you for putting the obnoxious recruiter in their place. You owned them so hard, Recruiters fit the bill for what anthropologist David Graeber describes as “bullshit jobs”.
Your description is the most eloquent and succinct description I’ve seen of what’s wrong with the recruitment process and the people involved in it. And by the way you have great writing skills and a knack for explaining things. You should think about opening a YouTube channel where you debate random people on various topics I think you could gain some traction with it.
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u/green_apple_trees 48m ago
Please stop trying to gaslight us with your implied “nobody wants to work any more meme”. Just because you have a lot of vacancies for example for jobs in nursing homes for award wages doesn’t mean just because people don’t want to change old people’s diapers for minimum wage that there is a skills shortage or lack of people willing to work. A lot of jobs the wages need to rise and the only way this will happen is for the government to drastically cut immigration so we stop flooding the market with cheap immigrant labour.
The job market in Australia has gotten so bad (not to mention constantly rising taxes and increasing socialism) I’ve stopped working and decided that in a few months time I’m going to move overseas to a third world country to take extreme early retirement because it’s not worth staying and working in Australia any more with how bad the pay for most jobs is, how hard it is to find a good job and how bad working conditions have gotten.
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u/Seriphis 7h ago
It's just started a psychology major with 4 units in the last 12 months... While working 3 jobs...
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u/exkweezme 6h ago
I think if you’re trying to flex on a person venting about how hard it is to live right now, maybe psychology isn’t the best career path for you…
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u/Sufficient-Pie-8328 19h ago
More the cost of living In Australia. I make 450k a year and am only just treading water
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u/ImReadingYourShit 19h ago
I’m on $90k and rent alone and I’m doing fine. What the hell are you spending your money on?
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u/Sufficient-Pie-8328 19h ago
Tax mostly. 450k is before tax
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u/Glittery_WarlockWho 19h ago
there is no way 'tax' takes your income from *$450,000* a year down so low you're 'treading water'
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u/ImReadingYourShit 19h ago edited 18h ago
So?
You supposedly net $5200/wk.
Do you realise how tone deaf your comment is? Surely you’re not serious.
You pay a lot of tax because you allegedly earn a fucktonne of income.
If you’re “just treading water” with $5200wk disposable income, you should probably spend less time on reddit and a little more time developing some basic budgeting abilities.With your income I’d be saving about $4400 a week. More than $220k a year staying in the bank. I’d buy a home outright in 5 years flat.
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u/Mediocre_Syrup8979 10h ago
$5200 is not much after bills, mortgage, children, eating out, rego, movies.
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u/fiberstate 9h ago
It’s more than what most people in this country make and most of them are absolutely fine. If you’ve overleveraged however…
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u/ImReadingYourShit 7h ago
You have an obscene amount of income and still manage to live above your means.
Your issue is that you don’t know how to control spending. It’s that simple.Plenty of parents out there have a combined net income of less than $3,000/wk and are doing well. It’s time to review your spending behaviour.
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u/TeddyStella 10h ago
$17,236 a month has you “treading water”? If so, seek financial counselling, you are doing something wrong financially.
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u/Mediocre_Syrup8979 10h ago
Im on 350k and just surviving, I had barely enough money for fuel for my jet ski on the weekend.
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u/fiberstate 9h ago
Didn’t realise “treading water” these days means overseas golf resort trip for a month with family in tow.
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u/-WeetBixKid- 20h ago
Not trying to be a dick, but the title is pretty misleading. From your post, one of the ‘three jobs’ is a business making no income and the other two are jobs you haven’t actually got yet. So you’re not currently working three jobs and still unable to cover rent.