IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/uqsers/151507.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Unemployment, Labour Market Insecurity and Policy Options

Author

Listed:
  • Bell, Stephen
  • Quiggin, John

Abstract

This chapter argues that Australia’s labour market – indeed most capitalist labour markets – feature too much unemployment and underemployment and associated forms of labour market insecurity or disadvantage. The later term implies a weak or tenuous connection to the labour force through underemployment or involuntary casual or part-time work and/or low wages or other manifestations of weakness vis-à-vis employers. The direct and indirect costs of such malfunctions in the labour market are reflected in all sorts of economic, social and health costs (Watts 2000; Saunders and Taylor 2002). A good deal of social policy is directed to problems emanating from the labour market and its various malfunctions – especially unemployment, underemployment and inequality. Accordingly, a good way to minimize the need for expensive and often difficult social policy interventions is to organize the labour market so that it provides reasonable jobs and wages for those that seek them

Suggested Citation

  • Bell, Stephen & Quiggin, John, 2005. "Unemployment, Labour Market Insecurity and Policy Options," Risk and Sustainable Management Group Working Papers 151507, University of Queensland, School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:uqsers:151507
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.151507
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/151507/files/WPP05_2.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.151507?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Borland, Jeff, 1999. "Earnings Inequality in Australia: Changes, Causes and Consequences," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 75(229), pages 177-202, June.
    2. William F. Mitchell & Martin J. Watts, 1997. "The Path to full Employment," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 30(4), pages 436-443, December.
    3. Jeff Borland, 1999. "Earnings Inequality in Australia: Changes, Causes and Consequences," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 75(2), pages 177-202, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Juan D. Barón & Deborah A. Cobb‐Clark, 2010. "Occupational Segregation and the Gender Wage Gap in Private‐ and Public‐Sector Employment: A Distributional Analysis," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 86(273), pages 227-246, June.
    2. Jeff Borland, 2000. "Economic Explanations of Earnings Distribution Trends in the International Literature and Application to New Zealand," Treasury Working Paper Series 00/16, New Zealand Treasury.
    3. Sholeh A Maani, 2002. "Education and Maori Relative Income Levels over Time: The Mediating Effect of Occupation, Industry, Hours of Work and Locality," Treasury Working Paper Series 02/17, New Zealand Treasury.
    4. Arpita Chatterjee & Aarti Singh & Tahlee Stone, 2016. "Understanding Wage Inequality in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 92(298), pages 348-360, September.
    5. Noel Gaston, 2008. "Understanding Australian Income Inequality: The Proper Role played by Globalisation, De-unionisation and the Terms of Trade," Agenda - A Journal of Policy Analysis and Reform, Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics, vol. 15(1), pages 49-66.
    6. Steven Kennedy & David Hedley, 2003. "A Note on Educational Attainment and Labour Force Participation in Australia," Treasury Working Papers 2003-03, The Treasury, Australian Government, revised Nov 2003.
    7. Kris Ivanovski & Sefa Awaworyi Churchill & John Inekwe, 2020. "Convergence in Income Inequality Across Australian States and Territories," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 148(1), pages 127-142, February.
    8. George Athanasopoulos & Farshid Vahid, 2003. "Statistical Inference and Changes in Income Inequality in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 79(247), pages 412-424, December.
    9. Alison L. Booth & Hiau Joo Kee, 2011. "A Long‐Run View Of The University Gender Gap In Australia," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 51(3), pages 254-276, November.
    10. Yekaterina Chzhen & Karen Mumford & Catia Nicodemo, 2013. "The Gender Pay Gap in the Australian Private Sector: Is Selection Relevant Across the Earnings Distribution?," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 89(286), pages 367-381, September.
    11. Stephen Bell & John Quiggin, 2008. "Unemployment Policy: Unemployment, Underemployment and Labour Market Insecurity," Australian Public Policy Program Working Papers WPP08_2, Risk and Sustainable Management Group, University of Queensland.
    12. Zdravka, Todorova, 2009. "Employer of Last Resort Policy and Feminist Economics: Social Provisioning and Socialization of Investment," MPRA Paper 16240, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Scott Baum & Anthea Bill & William Mitchell, 2008. "Labour Underutilisation in Metropolitan Labour Markets in Australia: Individual Characteristics, Personal Circumstances and Local Labour Markets," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 45(5-6), pages 1193-1216, May.
    14. Sholeh A. Maani, 2004. "Why Have Maori Relative Income Levels Deteriorated Over Time?," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 80(248), pages 101-124, March.
    15. Aaron Blanco & Jeff Borland & Michael Coelli & James Maccarrone, 2021. "The Impact of Growth in Manufactured Imports from China on Employment in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 97(317), pages 243-266, June.
    16. Burgess, John & Mitchell, William F. & O'Brien, Duncan J. & Watts, Martin J., 2000. "The developing workfare policy in Australia: a critical assessment," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 173-188.
    17. Huy Quang Vu, 2012. "Imports and the demand for skilled and unskilled labour - the Australian experience," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 15(1), pages 37-55.
    18. Jeff Borland & Michael Coelli, 2016. "Labour Market Inequality in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 92(299), pages 517-547, December.
    19. Pauline Halchuk, 2006. "Measuring employment outcomes for Indigenous Australians," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 9(2), pages 201-215, June.
    20. Peter Kenyon, 1998. "Discussion of 'Dimensions, Structure and History of Australian Unemployment'," RBA Annual Conference Volume (Discontinued), in: Guy Debelle & Jeff Borland (ed.),Unemployment and the Australian Labour Market, Reserve Bank of Australia.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:uqsers:151507. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/decuqau.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.