He is the director of the Hunter Recruitment Group and helps people get back into the workforce every day.

“The issue that young people have, and the environment we have here in the Hunter, is that supply and demand isn’t in their favour,” he said.

“Because of the downturn in the mining industry, what has occurred is we now have an influx of people who are unemployed.

“Because they were previously employed in mining or mining related services, their partners are now looking for work as well.

“It just means the search ­parameters or the search opportunities for an employer are larger.”

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Mr McGregor said the trend is for employers to choose skilled and experienced people over those who do not have adequate training.

The problem is the majority of these untrained prospective employees are young people looking to enter the industry.

“Employers are going ‘I’m ­looking for someone with this experience, this skill set’ and they are finding those skills, as opposed to a younger person who may have slightly those skills but a need for training,” he said.

“They are grabbing the person with the skills.”

His company gets hundreds of applications for roles and he said it is hard to look through the applications to choose the right people.

He said young unemployed people needed to consider that recruitment agents and hiring managers are not mind-readers. 

“You need to tell them what you want, tell them why you fit, tell them why you are motivated and what you can offer the business,” he said.

His main tip was to make a human connection with prospective employers and in that way become separated from the pack.

“It is still a human process, the way that you get a job is not through the way that you email someone, but it’s the way that you connect in the interview,” he said.