A secondary analysis to develop a scale for measuring unemployed workers' experiences of Australian employment...

Research consistently shows that Australian employment services are failing those they are intended to serve. Based on findings in other human service areas, a valid and reliable instrument to measure unemployed workers' experiences may provide an opportunity for improvement in this sector.

To establish a basis for developing a suitable rating scale.

An exploratory factor analysis combined with qualitative cross check for face validity of an existing large survey of Australian unemployed workers.

Six factors appear to be important elements of service delivery: (F1) useful and competent, (F2) client-centred, (F3) receptive to feedback, (F4) trustworthy, (F5) fair, and (F6) friendly.

While each of these factors have been either described explicitly or referred to implicitly in previous studies, this study is the first to attempt to combine these factors and is a precursor to establishing a valid and reliable rating scale for use by unemployed workers in evaluating their employment service providers. At a time when Australia is exploring new approaches to employment services, such a scale using a robust set of factors may allow for the improvement of employment services and thus be held accountable to a significant stakeholder group whom they aim to serve -unemployed workers.