The document discusses strategies to raise workforce participation and reduce welfare dependency in Australia. It argues that while training and education can help some groups like women rejoin the workforce, it may have limited impact for those with low IQ or skills, as many jobs now require minimum IQ levels or skills above what some groups can attain. It suggests two alternatives - creating more low-skilled, low-wage job opportunities through services, or accepting that conditional welfare will be a long-term reality for some with limited capabilities.

1. GLOBALISATION, WAGES AND WELFARE REFORM The ‘Middle Mass’ and the ‘Marginalised Minority’ in twenty-first century Australia Peter Saunders Centre for Independent Studies Keynote address to Dept of Employment and Workplace Relations All SES Conference, Sydney, 2 August 2007

8. Welfare growth partly driven by growing dependency of the ‘marginalised minority’