Employment Polarisation in Australia

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Employment Polarisation in Australia

Author Info

Peter Dawkins
Paul Gregg
Rosanna Scutella ()

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Paul Gregg

Abstract

Whilst employment levels in Australia are healthy when compared to those twenty years ago, the available work has become increasingly polarised into either all-work or no-work households. This paper measures the extent of polarisation that has taken place in Australia since 1982 with a measure that accounts for changes in individual based employment and family structure. We find that employment growth over the period should have largely offset the effects of shifts in household composition towards more single-adult households. However, polarisation of employment across households means that there are around 3.3 percent more households with no earned income. We also find that couples with children have faced the bulk of this rising joblessness as a result of this polarisation. Exploration of wider shifts in employment away from less-educated men and toward prime-age better educated women explain about 40% of the adverse shift against couples with children. The increase in all-work households is confined to multi-adult households, again focused on families with children. Hence, there is a large shift in patterns of employment in households with children, away from a dominant single male earner model toward more dual-earner and no-earner households with children. This dramatic polarisation of work and incomes for families with children is likely to have consequence for welfare costs and child opportunities in the next generation.

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Paper provided by Department of Economics, University of Bristol, UK in its series The Centre for Market and Public Organisation with number 02/050.

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Length: 55 pages
Date of creation: Jul 2002
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:bri:cmpowp:02/050

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Other versions of this item:

Article
- Peter Dawkins & Paul Gregg & Rosanna Scutella, 2005. "Employment Polarisation in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 81(255), pages 336-350, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Paper
- Peter Dawkins & Paul Gregg & Rosanna Scutella, 2002. "Employment Polarisation in Australia," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2002n09, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne. [Downloadable!]

Find related papers by JEL classification:
J6 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

NEP-ALL-2003-11-03 (All new papers)
NEP-MFD-2003-11-03 (Microfinance)

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:

Peter Dawkins & Paul Gregg & Rosanna Scutella, 2001. "The Growth of Jobless Households in Australia," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2001n03, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne. [Downloadable!]
Other versions:
- Peter Dawkins & Paul Gregg & Rosanna Scutella, 2002. "The Growth of Jobless Households in Australia," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 35(2), pages 133-154. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Paul Gregg & Jonathan Wadsworth, . "More work in fewer households?," NIESR Discussion Papers 72, National Institute of Economic and Social Research.
Dawkins, Peter, 1996. "The Distribution of Work in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 72(218), pages 272-86, September.
Paul W. Miller, 1997. "The Burden of Unemployment on Family Units: An Overview," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 30(1), pages 16-30. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Bob Gregory, 1999. "Children and the Changing Labour Market: Joblessness in Families with Dependent Children," CEPR Discussion Papers 406, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University. [Downloadable!]
Gregory, R.G. & Hunter, B., 1995. "The Macro Economy and the Growth of Ghettos and Urban Poverty in Australia," CEPR Discussion Papers 325, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University.

Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

M. D. R. Evans & Jonathan Kelley, 2004. "Effects of Family of Origin on Women’s and Men’s Workforce Involvement," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2004n25, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne. [Downloadable!]
Deborah Cobb-Clark & Chris Ryan & Robert Breunig, 2005. "A Couples-based Approach to the Problem of Workless Families," ANUCBE School of Economics Working Papers 2005-454, Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics. [Downloadable!]
Other versions:
- Cobb-Clark, Deborah & Ryan, Chris & Breunig, Robert, 2003. "A Couples-Based Approach to the Problem of Workless Families," IZA Discussion Papers 864, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
- Deborah Cobb-Clark & Chris Ryan & Robert Breunig, 2006. "A Couples-Based Approach to the Problem of Workless Families," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 82(259), pages 428-444, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Rosanna Scutella & Mark Wooden, 2006. "Effects of Household Joblessness on Subjective Well-Being," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2006n10, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne. [Downloadable!]
Paul Gregg & Rosanna Scutella & Jonathan Wadsworth, 2004. "Reconciling Workless Measures at the Individual and Household Level: Theory and Evidence from the United States, Britain, Germany, Spain and Australia," CEP Discussion Papers dp0635, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE. [Downloadable!]
Other versions:
- Paul Gregg, Rosanna Scutella and Jonathan Wadsworth, 2004. "Reconciling Workless Measures at the Individual and Household Level. Theory and Evidence from the United States, Britain, Germany, Spain and Australia," Royal Holloway, University of London: Discussion Papers in Economics 04/04, Department of Economics, Royal Holloway University of London, revised Apr 2004. [Downloadable!]

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