"I've done volunteer work for nearly five years and it's on par with what a paid worker would be doing but it hasn't really done anything to help me find work. "They're looking for people with paid experience but how can I ever get that if people aren't willing to give me a job?" Mr Nguyen is not alone as youth underemployment hits a 40-year high, with more than one-third of people aged between 15 and 24 either unemployed or not working enough hours. In NSW, 12.7 per cent of young people do not have a job, more than twice the general unemployment rate of 5.6 per cent. Schools are a big part of the problem, a new report conducted by advocacy group Youth Action and endorsed by the NSW Business Chamber has found.

"Students are not receiving solid intelligence about where the jobs are now and where they are likely to be in the future," according to chief executive of the NSW Business Chamber Stephen Cartwright. Providing better advice early in high school is one of the best ways to make sure young people are making the right educational choices, but schools are not dedicating enough resources to career guidance, the report has found One in two schools in Australia spend less than $3 per student every year in this key area, leaving most young people without "a career transition plan" and knowledge of the changing workforce. "The industries that used to have entry-level jobs are disappearing, but we haven't really transformed the way we talk about jobs for young people in Australia," Youth Action's chief executive Katie Acheson said. "Knowledge industries are growing but you have to go through the training and have the skills.

"It's paramount that young people get good advice on the jobs that are available now and what it will be like in 10 years." A recent survey by the NSW Business Chamber found that construction, manufacturing and business services industries are currently facing the biggest skills shortages, but the latest Department of Education figures show that more than 60 per cent of university students applied for health, society and culture and management and commerce degrees in 2016. Ms Acheson said people who are well-informed about opportunities for work are "far more likely to choose training and areas that will lead to a job". "We're seeing a changing marketplace and what we need is a national youth unemployment strategy," she said. "But one of the easier things in the puzzle is advice in schools, which already exists but needs to be strengthened. Spending less than a cup of coffee per student is probably not enough.

"When teachers and careers advisers don't have the resources, you just get generic advice like 'you should go to uni or TAFE' instead of looking at the student's skills, the market and the area they live in." Ms Acheson said being unemployed for a long time can have a "scarring effect" on young people's mental health and ability to find work later in life. Loading Mr Nguyen says he never got a chance to talk one-on-one to a teacher or career adviser about his future while he was in high school. "I feel like I would have been in a significantly better position if I had," he said. "A lot of high school students don't know anything about the field they want to go into."