As Australia's youth unemployment rate climbs to 11.1 per cent — more than double the general rate and rising three times as fast — a new platform called Knack has entered the space between young job seekers and the silence that too often greets them. Founded by Gemma Lloyd, who previously built a transparency-focused jobs site for women, Knack is built on a simple but countercultural premise: no application should disappear without a trace. In a labour market where the gap between young people and opportunity is measurably widening, the platform asks whether the missing ingredient is not jobs
Youth jobs platform Knack launches amid rising unemployment, pledges end to application ghosting
sending application after application into a black hole
Mark
So Knack is essentially saying they'll do the work that employers won't—give feedback when companies ghost applicants. How realistic is that promise at scale?
Mimi
It's a real commitment. Every two weeks they check in with each young person, and if there's been silence or rejection, they offer feedback based on the CV and the specific role. They're not waiting for employers to cooperate; they're building it into the platform itself.
Luke
But here's the thing—we don't know how many of those 5,000 signups have actually applied for jobs yet, or how many rejections Knack has had to process. The feedback promise is only as good as the execution, and that scales differently at 5,000 users than at 50,000.
Mimi
True, but the problem they're solving is real. Youth unemployment just hit 11.1 per cent, more than double the general rate. Young people are sending applications into silence constantly.
Mark
And the other angle—surfacing jobs young people don't know exist. Is that actually a labour market problem, or is it just a marketing problem for employers?
Luke
It could be both. The NBN technician roles are a good example—real jobs, decent careers probably, but not obvious to a school leaver. Whether Knack can systematically solve that is still unproven.
Mimi
What matters is they're trying to bridge two gaps at once: young people who don't know what jobs are out there, and employers who can't find workers. If they can even partially solve that, it's worth watching.
Mark
And if they can't scale the feedback promise without burning out?
Luke
Then they become just another jobs board, and the ghosting problem stays exactly as it is.
El Pulso
- Youth unemployment hit 11.1% in September — more than double the general rate of 4.7% and rising three times faster in a single month, signalling a labour market that is pulling away from its youngest participants.
- For many young Australians, the job search is defined not by rejection but by silence — applications vanishing without acknowledgment, leaving candidates with no way to improve or even understand what went wrong.
- Knack, which launched in late August and reached 5,000 signups by October, is directly targeting that silence by guaranteeing personalised feedback on every unsuccessful application within two weeks.
- The platform also surfaces careers young people may not know to search for — such as NBN field technician roles — arguing that a real mismatch exists not in the number of jobs, but in awareness of them.
- While youth joblessness remains below its long-term average of 12.96% and far from the 1992 peak of 20.1%, the current trajectory and the scale of the gap with older workers suggest the window for early intervention is now.
As Australia's youth unemployment rate climbs to 11.1 per cent — more than double the general rate and rising three times as fast — a new platform called Knack has entered the space between young job seekers and the silence that too often greets them. Founded by Gemma Lloyd, who previously built a transparency-focused jobs site for women, Knack is built on a simple but countercultural premise: no application should disappear without a trace. In a labour market where the gap between young people and opportunity is measurably widening, the platform asks whether the missing ingredient is not jobs or workers, but simply connection.
Australia's youth unemployment rate rose to 11.1 per cent in September — a jump of 0.3 percentage points that outpaced the broader economy's modest rise to 4.7 per cent. The gap between young job seekers and the general workforce has now stretched to more than double, a disparity that forms the backdrop for the launch of Knack, a platform built specifically around one of the most demoralising features of early job hunting: being ignored.
Knack went live on August 24 and had attracted 5,000 signups by early October. Its founding promise is deliberately countercultural — every applicant will receive feedback on every unsuccessful application. Founder Gemma Lloyd, who previously created Work180, a jobs platform focused on women's employment and workplace transparency, says the commitment comes from a clear-eyed view of what makes the early job search so discouraging. "Ghosting is one of the most demoralising parts of looking for your first job," she told NewsWire. "Looking for your first job is hard enough without sending application after application into a black hole."
The platform is built to reduce that uncertainty at every stage. Applicants can track in real time whether their submission has been viewed, shortlisted, or advanced to interview. Every two weeks, Knack follows up on outstanding applications and, where a role has been rejected or gone unanswered, delivers three or four specific, practical suggestions tailored to the candidate's CV and the particular job. Employers are still encouraged to respond directly, but a young person's progress will not be left waiting on whether they do.
Knack's second purpose addresses a different kind of gap: the careers young people simply don't know exist. Among the first roles posted were around 200 NBN customer field technician positions. Lloyd's question was pointed — how many school leavers would think to search for that title? The platform is premised on the idea that employers are looking for workers and young Australians are looking for jobs, and that what's missing is not effort on either side, but connection.
The September figures, released Thursday, showed youth joblessness running at more than twice the general rate and rising three times as fast in a single month. At 11.1 per cent, the rate sits below the long-term average of 12.96 per cent but well above the record low of 7.1 per cent reached in July 2022. The worst on record — 20.1 per cent — came in October 1992. The current trajectory is a reminder that for Australians aged 15 to 24, the labour market is becoming noticeably harder, and that the distance between available work and the people who need it remains a problem worth solving.
Australia's youth unemployment rate climbed to 11.1 per cent in September, a jump of 0.3 percentage points that outpaced the broader economy's 0.1 point rise to 4.7 per cent. The gap between young job seekers and their older counterparts has widened to more than double, a disparity that prompted the launch of Knack, a new platform designed specifically to address one of the most frustrating parts of the early job search: silence.
Knack went live on August 24 and had signed up 5,000 young people by early October. The platform's central promise is straightforward and deliberately countercultural in an industry known for indifference: every applicant will receive feedback on every unsuccessful application. Founder Gemma Lloyd, who previously built Work180, a jobs site focused on women's employment and company transparency around gender pay gaps and leave policies, says the commitment stems from a clear observation about what makes job hunting miserable for teenagers and early-career workers. "Ghosting is one of the most demoralising parts of looking for your first job," Lloyd told NewsWire. "Looking for your first job is hard enough without sending application after application into a black hole."
The mechanics of Knack's approach are designed to reduce that uncertainty. Applicants can see in real time when their application has been viewed, whether it has been shortlisted, and whether they have advanced to an interview stage. Every two weeks, the platform checks in with each young person about the roles they have applied for. If an application was rejected or went unanswered, Knack offers to provide feedback and delivers three or four specific, practical suggestions for strengthening the next application, tailored to the candidate's CV and the particular role. Lloyd acknowledges that employers themselves are still encouraged to provide their own feedback, but Knack will not leave a young person's progress dependent on whether an employer bothers to respond.
The platform's second major function addresses a different kind of invisibility: the existence of careers that young people simply do not know about. Knack aims to surface jobs with detailed information about their actual requirements—whether they involve physical labour, outdoor work, or structured training programs. Among the first large batches of jobs posted were about 200 NBN customer field technician roles. Lloyd posed the problem plainly: "How many school leavers would open a jobs website and type 'customer field technician' into the search bar?" The platform is built on the premise that there is a genuine mismatch between available work and young people's awareness of it, and that employers are actively looking for workers while young Australians are actively looking for jobs. The missing piece is simply connection.
The timing of Knack's launch reflects a real tightening in the youth labour market. The September unemployment figures, released on Thursday, showed youth joblessness running at more than twice the general rate and rising three times as fast in that single month. The current 11.1 per cent rate sits below the long-term average of 12.96 per cent but well above the record low of 7.1 per cent reached in July 2022. The worst youth unemployment on record came in October 1992, when it hit 20.1 per cent. The official figures count Australians aged 15 to 24 who are unemployed and actively seeking work, a cohort now facing a noticeably harder job market than the general population.
Citas Notables
Looking for your first job is hard enough without sending application after application into a black hole.— Gemma Lloyd, founder of Knack
How many school leavers would open a jobs website and type 'customer field technician' into the search bar?— Gemma Lloyd, on the disconnect between available careers and young people's awareness of them
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Economy & Finance