Shannon Fairbanks spent nearly a decade as a meat worker before a motorbike crash left him out of work.
He was on the dole for about three years before getting a phone call from some mates on a Canberra construction site.
"They just knew the drama I was sort of in, with not having work and stuff like that, and they just said 'Look there's work going here, would you like to apply?'" Mr Fairbanks told AAP on Wednesday.
His would-be employers had tapped into a federal government program aimed at getting long-term unemployed welfare recipients into work.
The wage subsidy program offers subsidies of up to $10,000 to employers who hire and retain eligible people in ongoing positions.
In December, Mr Fairbanks became the 100,000th person to gain employment through the program, picking up work as a pipe lagger.
"It's really good to be back at work," he said.
"There's nothing worse than having no job and just sitting around all day every day."
Jobs Minister Michaelia Cash joined Malcolm Turnbull and Liberal colleague Zed Seselja to tour the site and spruik the government program on Wednesday morning.
The prime minister dubbed Mr Fairbanks "a human milestone" before marvelling at his work insulating copper wiring.
"When it comes to a government that gets the policy fundamentals right to enable businesses like Total Insulation to prosper and grow, and to give people like Shannon a chance to get a job, that is exactly what this government is doing," Senator Cash later said.
Mr Fairbanks' boss Ben Turner said he'd hit the ground running and the wage subsidy program helped cover his costs while he was still learning.
"I think one of the best things that can happen is that someone gets a job and they're not sitting at home on the dole," Mr Turner told AAP.
"You can see that Shannon's happier than when he first started and he's an integral part of our team. We want to keep him for a long time."
