Work for the dole participants are finding it harder to get jobs. New statistics show that just 11.7% of them find full-time work three months after the program.

Of jobseekers who took part in the program between 1 July 2015 and 31 March 2016, 27.7% were in either full-time, part-time or casual employment three months later, the employment department has revealed in an answer to a question on notice from Senate estimates.

That has decreased from 35% when the same question was asked at Senate estimates in May for the period of July to November 2015.

Results for those who find full-time work are also down, from 16.1% to 11.7%.

Labor’s spokesman on employment services, Ed Husic, has taken aim at the government’s delivery of the program saying the already “abysmal” results had “cratered” since May.

“The work for the dole program has failed under the Abbott-Turnbull government,” he told Guardian Australia.

It had made it harder for young people to find work despite the employment minister, Michaelia Cash, vowing at estimates in May not to let youth “become entrenched in a culture of welfare dependence”, he said.

“Is work for the dole going to be relegated to a PR stunt or turned into a meaningful pathway to work for people who’ve been locked out a job for ages?”

Figures released in August show unemployment in Australia sits at 5.72%, the lowest in almost three years, but full-time work has continued to decline, particularly among young people aged 15-24.

In July 2015 the federal government moved to provide employment services through Jobactive, which pays incentives to private providers to help people gain employment.

Last week Guardian Australia reported the Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union is considering legal action against Jobactive providers after receiving complaints from people who suffered abrupt suspensions or penalties to their unemployment benefits when they were deemed to have breached work for the dole rules.

Husic said the current success rate was “appalling” and the government had failed at managing basic employment services since the shift to Jobactive.

In May the employment department secretary, Renee Leon, told Senate estimates work for the dole had “very positive outcomes”.

She cited a survey that found more than two-thirds of participants said it had improved their desire to find a job, their ability to work for others, their self-confidence, their work-related skills, and their understanding of the workplace.

Leon said its objective was to give “work-like experiences ... especially as a means of improving [participants’] job prospects and also to enable them to provide a benefit to their local community”.

Under changes in the May budget, the government will save $494.2m over four years by requiring the “most job-ready” unemployed people to work for the dole after 12 months, instead of six months.

It also announced it would redirect $751.7m from work for the dole to the new PaTH internship scheme, which will pay employers $1,000 to take on a young person who has been unemployed for more than six months as an intern for four to 12 weeks.

Husic said: “Before fixing work for the dole the government has moved on to its next thought bubble, an internship program called PaTH which, it appears, hasn’t been thought through.” He cited fears the internships will displace “real jobs”.

Guardian Australia contacted Cash for comment.