Tony Abbott is still figuring it out, kids

Everyone has to be good at something. But even Prime Minister Tony Abbott is still trying to figure out what his something is.

That's what the nation's leader said on Wednesday as he urged young Australians to get into the workforce.

"It doesn't matter where you start, as long as you start," Mr Abbott told a youth employment conference in Sydney.

Mr Abbott - who worked as a labourer, bartender, handyman and journalist before entering politics - described how he was paid $2 an hour to fix a family friend's fence as a 16-year-old.

He used the story to advise today's youth not to turn down jobs they didn't like.

Job searching is difficult for many but the important thing is not to give up, he said.

"Because everyone can be good at something, it's just a question of finding what that is.

"I'm still looking myself," Mr Abbott joked.

The prime minister also used the speech to spruik the Howard government's work-for-the-dole scheme, which he oversaw as employment minister in 2001.

While it was deemed demeaning back then, the policy helped many realise what they were capable of, he said.