The Job Guarantee
In this blog, we continue our exploration of the works and writing of people who have worked with the Stronger Smarter Institute and been influenced by the Stronger Smarter Philosophy.
When Dr Ian Mackie was principal of Western Cape College, he launched a very successful program of a Job Guarantee. Below, Dr Gary MacLennan interviews Dr Mackie about the Job Guarantee.
Dr Mackie’s thesis can be found at Innovation and reform in Queensland Indigenous educational policy: a critical analysis – Southern Cross University. It contains a detailed chapter on the Job Guarantee.
G: Let’s talk about jobs and why you are always banging on about a job guarantee, ok? Could you give us some background?
Ian: I organised a job guarantee when I was Principal of Western Cape College (2006–2010). Quite simply, I decided to declare war on unemployment and the precarity that was dominating the lives of my students.
G: “Precarity” – that’s a big word! What do you mean by it?
Ian: It means a world where we do not have job or housing or food security. Some thinkers also say we live in Precaria [1].
G: What turned you in the direction of guaranteeing a job?
Ian: Frankly, I was scandalised by the extent of youth unemployment, and I resolved that no graduate from my school would be sat ‘home alone without hope’. I refused to accept that it was ok for the school to produce NEETs, that is, graduates who were not employed, not in further education or training. Accordingly, I made a simple and direct promise to all the students. I told them that if they stayed at school and completed Year 12, I would personally guarantee them a job if they chose not to go onto further training or tertiary education.
G: Wow! That was a big commitment. What reaction did you get?
Ian: There was a great deal of incredulity not only on the part of the students but also of some staff members. There was, in addition, a feeling in some quarters that the school had no business guaranteeing anything never mind a job.
G: How did you react to this push back?
Ian: I took the view that we needed to adapt an expanded view of the school in terms of time, space and relationality. I knew that what happened to the students after they left school would have an impact on those who were still at school. The reason is that what happened to the graduates became the future in the present of those still at school. I was convinced that if the Year 9s, in particular, could see that those who stayed to Year 12 really got a job, then schooling would begin to make sense to them. They would be able to see that staying on at school and acting properly would have a positive impact on their lives. They would be in control of what happened to them in the future.
G: Could you say a bit more about the “guarantee” part of the job guarantee?
Ian: A couple of things stand out here for me. I gave my word to the students and their parents, and I understood that my word had to be my bond. If I delivered, they would trust me and trust is one of the rarest and most valuable of commodities in the relationship between teacher and pupil.
G: And?
Ian: Well, very interestingly, without realising it fully, what I did was to establish a positive trajectory for the students. After school they were going to have a job. Mackie had their back, so they could relax. The future was taken care of, and that meant they could enjoy the present even more.
G: That is interesting. What else happened that surprised you?
Ian: As the guarantee rolled out two things happened with remarkable speed. When the first crop of Year 12s got jobs, the Year 12 program expanded very rapidly. I was particularly gratified to see an unprecedented increase in Year 12 enrolments by Indigenous students. Secondly, the Year 9s avoided the alienation trap that traditionally sets in around that year and they knuckled down to the business of getting an education. I have been a Year 9 coordinator and, to be honest, I was astonished at the positive change in their behaviour.
G: All this has radical consequences for thinking about what a school is supposed to do, doesn’t it?
Ian: Yes, absolutely. As well as expanding the notion of the school along the dimension of time, I also expanded it in terms of space. I fought hard against the notion of the “Fortress School” surrounded by uncaring and even hostile forces. I thought instead of the school being everywhere. I insisted that the staff think of the school as spatially free. Like the Amazing Nightcrawler from the X-men, the school could turn up anywhere at any time. Like Mystique, the schools shape could change but it was still the school. When my graduates got jobs, they took the school with them. When I went to a Chamber of Commerce meeting to plead for support the school was there with me. When I visited parents and sat down to congratulate them on how well their child was doing, I was bringing the school into their home.
G: Very interesting to think that you created relevance for the school by expanding its role along the dimensions of time and space.
Ian: Yes. I also added a third dimension of relationality. I sought to create a school that was the centre of gravity of the communities it served. The ideal for me was that I would insert the school into an ever-expanding network of relationships that would benefit the students. I sought sponsorships. I declared an open-door policy for parents and Elders and community members, and I meant it. I had conversations large and small with everyone I met or contacted. Always, I brought the subject around to how the school could help them, and how they could help the school. That meant that I personally contacted every employer or employer group. I set up a committee of parents, Elders and employers that tracked every graduate, and made sure that the graduate was placed, and was provided with support as they entered the world of work.
G: What were some of the other benefits of the job guarantee?
Ian: Well, the project was so successful that it was taken up by the then Federal Government and became the Learn, Earn, Legend Program.
G: Good one. Anything else?
Ian: For me, personally, one of the greatest achievements was the creation of intergenerational harmony. The students could see their Elders going the extra mile to help them and that set of the chain reaction of reciprocity.
G: Could we go back to the job guarantee thing? Just what is the job guarantee?
Ian: There are two approaches here. First there is what I call the “basic service guarantee”. This is a school-based model which guarantees every student, who sticks with the school, that the school will stick with them. It says that, when the student graduates, he or she is still part of the school community. All the resources of the school will be deployed to ensure that the former student will be placed in meaningful employment. That requires building close relationship with employers and other agencies ready, and carefully auditing what we do in the school to ensure that our students are job.
G: What is the other approach?
Ian: This is a job guarantee that is the idea of the economist, Professor Bill Mitchell, who works at Newcastle University [2]. You can read his blog here.
Simply put, the job guarantee means that the Federal Government would introduce an open-ended public employment program – a Job Guarantee – that offers a job at a living (minimum) wage to anyone who wants to work but cannot find employment. Because it pays at the minimum rate, the job guarantee will not be competing with the private sector, as it will not be paying market wages. As a consequence, it will not be inflationary. It will rather lead to price stability.
G: What kind of jobs are we talking about?
Ian: Mitchell and his co-workers list the following as jobs that do not require a high capital investment: caretaker, child care worker, cleaner, coding clerk, community arts officer, community development officer, event organisation assistant/promotion, family support worker/mentor, gallery/museum attendant, garden labourer, general clerk, health promotions officer, Indigenous education worker, inspector/regulatory officer, interviewer, kitchen hand/food preparation assistant, library assistant, personal care assistant/home support worker, railway assistant, refuge support worker, sales assistant, security officer, sports development assistant, teachers’ aide, tourist information, trekking guide/bush walking guide, youth support worker.
The following jobs require medium capital investment: builder’s labourer, environmental remediation worker, handyperson, trapper.
The following jobs require high capital investment: bus driver, fencer, fire prevention, paving/surfacing labourers, rail track workers [3].
G: Seriously all this sounds very radical, do you think the idea has any chance at all? Be honest now.
Ian: Yes, I do. For example, in India the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme (MGNREGS) has had a big impact on the rural poor, and very importantly is attracting impoverished women into the workforce. The program promises 100 days of work per year at the statutory minimum wage to all rural households, where the adults are willing to do unskilled manual labour. [4] In the fiscal year 2010–11, the scheme provided work for 55 million households. It amounted to 2.5 billion workdays on 5.1 million projects. Accordingly, it is obviously a serious government initiative. [5] In the US a number of scholars at Duke University have begun work on promoting a job guarantee. They have set the campaign within the context of the historical WPA program during the New Deal. They point out that Roosevelt’s New Deal delivered thousands of jobs in areas as diverse as road building to collecting oral testimonies of slavery. They argue that the same and more can be achieved in a green energy economy. [6]
It is no surprise that Bernie Sanders and Ocasio Cortez support the idea of a job guarantee. [7] As well, polls show that a majority of Americans support a job guarantee. [8] That means that for an increasing number of Americans employment is a fundamental right. We should seriously consider giving Australians the same right, especially as the research shows that there is widespread support for a job guarantee in Australia. [9]
Ian’s story reminds us that courageous, relational leadership can transform the futures of our young people. His Job Guarantee showed what becomes possible when we replace despair with hope and walk alongside communities rather than acting upon them.
These ideas speak to the kind of nation we want for our children — one that honours the humanity of Aboriginal Australians and creates real pathways for belonging and possibility.
The Stronger Smarter Together Summit brings these principles into a shared national conversation, connecting scholarship, policy and practice in one room.
We invite you to join us in Brisbane and be part of this work. Tickets are limited.
👉 https://strongersmartersummit.com.au/
Footnotes
[1] Dionne, E. (2021). Resisting Neoliberalism. A Feminist New Materialist Ethics of Care to Respond to Precarious World(s). In M. Hamington & M. Flower (Eds.), Care Ethics in the Age of Precarity (pp. 229-259): University of Minnesota Press.
[2] Mitchell, W. F., & Fazi, T. (2017). Reclaiming the State: A Progressive Vision of Sovereignty for a Post-Neoliberal World. London: Pluto Press.
[3] Cook, B., Mitchell, W., Quirk, V., & Watts, M. (2008). Creating effective local labour markets: a new framework for regional employment policy. Retrieved from The University of Newcastle.
[4] Dutta, P., Murgal, R., Ravallion, M., & Van De Walle, D. (2012). Does India’s Employment Guarantee Scheme Gauarantee Employment? Economic & Political Weekly, 47(16), 55-64.
[5] Liu, Y. S., & Barrett, C. B. (2013). National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. Economic and Political Weekly, 48(10), 46-53.
[6] Paul, M., Darity, W., Hamilton, D., & Zaw, K. (2018). A Path to Ending Poverty by Way of Ending Unemployment: A Federal Job Guarantee. Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 4(3), 44-63.
[7] Pearkes, G. (2020). The latest progressive economic policy is designed to stabilize the US labor market — and it looks a lot like the military. Insider.
[8] Paddison, L. (2018). What Is A Federal Jobs Guarantee? Huffington Post.
[9] YouGov. (2020, August). A Robot Took My Job: Why Australians back a jobs guarantee.