GEN Y "job snobs" will be kicked off the dole if they live in areas where employers struggle to find staff if Tony Abbott wins the election.

The Coalition is finalising the small print on a tough get-to-work policy that will force all unemployed under-50s to earn the dole. Welfare benefits will also be denied to under-30s in areas where employers cannot find enough workers for unskilled jobs, such as cleaning and labouring.

Opposition employment participation spokeswoman Sussan Ley said more details would be announced closer to the September 14 election.

"We intend to suspend dole payments for people under 30 years of age in areas where unskilled work is readily available," she said yesterday.

"The Coalition has consistently maintained we believe the best pathway to work is with a job.

"Work-for-the-dole will be a key element of our policy to halt any unnecessary blowout in the numbers of long-term unemployed."

Mr Abbott, who helped out on Clean Up Australia Day in western Sydney yesterday, has previously referred to young people who turn down work as "job snobs", but his office refused to elaborate yesterday.

Employers are reporting shortages of waiters and bar staff, childcare workers, labourers, roof tilers, landscape gardeners and care workers for aged-care homes.

The latest official job vacancy data shows employers failed to fill one in every three vacancies for waiters within a month of advertising last year - mainly because they insisted on experienced staff.

Childcare centres could not find staff for more than 40 per cent of their vacancies, with barely one suitable applicant for every job. Nearly half the vacancies for hairdressers could not be filled last year.

Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) data shows a spike in unemployment in western Sydney.

The number of jobless jumped 18 per cent to 15,000 in Canterbury-Bankstown, lifting the unemployment rate to 9.8 per cent in December.

In Wollongong, the number of jobless jumped 20 per cent to 9900 people, to an unemployment rate of 6.9 per cent.

Jobless numbers in the outer suburbs of south-western Sydney soared 44 per cent last year to 7800, with a 6 per cent unemployment rate.

On the mid-north coast, the jobless rate rose to 7 per cent.

A spokeswoman for federal Employment Participation Minister Kate Ellis yesterday said the Coalition plan meant "there would be no training and no education programs for youth to get the training they need to have a long and rewarding employment".

Melbourne caterer Barry Iddles yesterday said many Gen Ys preferred surfing to working. Mr Iddles said he paid award rates of $20 an hour on weekdays and $28 on Sundays, sometimes $30 an hour to get staff to work. "Gen Y don't particularly want to work that hard," he said. latest unemployment data reveals that 442,932 Australians have now spent at least a year on Newstart.

Originally published as Clean up your acts or do without dole