There are five low-skilled applicants competing for every entry-level job, making it impossible for some unemployed Australians to find work, new research on job availability has found.

As the Morrison government continues to resist calls to raise Newstart, arguing people should get a job instead, Anglicare Australia says "it is a simple mathematical fact" there are not enough jobs to go around.

In its Jobs Availability Snapshot, Anglicare Australia compared government data on the number of unemployed people who have significant barriers to gaining work with the number of suitable online positions advertised in May 2019.

Barriers to gaining work include disability, not finishing high school, losing your job in your 50s and being a refugee or Indigenous Australian.