Detailed annalysis of "Captain Corelli's Mandolin

Australian financial review
March 11, 2003 Tuesday

SECTION: Computers; Pg. 34

LENGTH: 407 words

HEADLINE: Official IT Unemployment Data 'way Off The Mark'

BYLINE: Mandy Bryan

BODY:
Is unemployment in the technology sector 11.9 per cent as claimed by the Australian Computer Society, or 3.8 per cent as claimed by the federal government using its official employment statistics?

Unemployed technology workers have argued that most of their unemployed counterparts did not show up in the official statistics.

They said most were ineligible for unemployment benefits because they were supported by their partners or worked part-time.

Moreover, because many of the jobless in the IT sector were over the age of 40, their assets alone, which usually included equity in the family home, usually disqualified them.

This was the status of Graham Owens, who is in his 50s and who was retrenched from the IT department at Qantas two years ago.

"I know no one who has signed on ...