During the early 1990s Perth was one of places hardest hit by a crippling recession which had spread through Australia.
Still reeling from the 1987 stock market crash and the WA Inc saga, it was one of the worst possible times for another financial crisis.
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Unemployment rate rises
In a surprise to economists, the unemployment rate in December rose to 5.8 per cent, from 5.7 per cent in November. Vision courtesy ABC News 24.
One of the notable signs was a skyrocketing unemployment rate and a lack of jobs. If you were aged over 40 when the recession hit, you looked into a bleak future.
As economist and former Treasury secretary Ken Henry said "a very large proportion of people aged over 45 who lost their jobs in the early 90s recession never worked a day again."
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In the recession's worst days Western Australia was shedding 3000 jobs a month, nationally that number was greater than 20,000. For some of us that feels like yesterday, but it was more than 25 years ago now.
Before text messages and apps. Before selfies. Before Facebook and LinkedIn. And well before words like innovation and disruption were bandied around.
History never repeats, but there is a symmetry to it.
Two years ago the state started changing. The economic slowdown was in full swing and bosses had to start making decisions. They either had to move into an operational phase as investment was drying up or realise their business wasn't as profitable as they thought.
At the heart of this was a slashing of full-time jobs. Since December 2014 Western Australia loses an average of 2945 full-time jobs every month.
While 1100 jobs were created in December 2016, that just isn't enough. At current employment levels we need to created at least 1500 jobs each month, and that just isn't happening.
All around us, we can see the desperation to find work. People are going to unusual steps, like the father who posted on Facebook begging for work for his son or a homeless man I pass in the city who is "willing to work for $5 an hour".
People want to work, but the job market isn't keeping up. Weirdly, state and federal governments expect the West Australian unemployment rate to fall this year.
This is wholly reliant on people giving up looking for work. For months and years to come they will not look for work, some won't ever work again.
Think about what that means. This isn't one or two people. This isn't your son or daughter who is struggling to find a job, it is a cross-section of society who will now need support.
That is more than just an economic cost, that has a huge impact on our communities. Most people want to work and pay their own way. They don't want to be sitting at home waiting for hand-outs.
But sometimes all of their options are drowned out around them. While the job market is showing slight gains, those gains just aren't enough to stop the wave of people without jobs rolling towards us
How much longer will we wait before we accept the economy itself needs to change?
Conrad Liveris is a workforce diversity specialist.
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