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Temporary employment and work-life balance in Australia

Author

Listed:
  • Inga Laß

    (Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research, The University of Melbourne)

  • Mark Wooden

    (Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research, The University of Melbourne)

Abstract

While it is often believed that temporary forms of employment, such as fixed-term contracts, casual work and temporary agency work, provide workers with more flexibility to balance work and private commitments, convincing empirical evidence on this issue is still scarce. This paper investigates the link between temporary employment and work†life balance in Australia, using longitudinal data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey for the period 2001 to 2017. In contrast to previous studies, we compare results from pooled cross†sectional and fixed†effects regressions to investigate the role of time-constant unobserved worker characteristics in linking temporary employment and work-life outcomes. The results show that, after accounting for job characteristics and person-specific fixed-effects, among women only casual employment is unequivocally associated with better work-life outcomes than permanent employment. For men, we mostly find negative associations between all forms of temporary employment and work-life outcomes, but the magnitudes of these associations are much smaller and mostly insignificant in fixed-effects models. This result suggests that male temporary employees have stable unobserved traits that are connected to poorer work-life balance.

Suggested Citation

  • Inga Laß & Mark Wooden, 2019. "Temporary employment and work-life balance in Australia," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2019n11, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    • Handle: RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2019n11
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    File URL: https://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/3202094/wp2019n11.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Duncan Gallie & Helen Russell, 2009. "Work-Family Conflict and Working Conditions in Western Europe," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 93(3), pages 445-467, September.
    2. Alison L. Booth & Marco Francesconi & Jeff Frank, 2002. "Temporary Jobs: Stepping Stones Or Dead Ends?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(480), pages 189-213, June.
    3. Florian Pichler, 2009. "Determinants of Work-life Balance: Shortcomings in the Contemporary Measurement of WLB in Large-scale Surveys," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 92(3), pages 449-469, July.
    4. Colin P. Green & Gareth D. Leeves, 2013. "Job Security, Financial Security and Worker Well-being: New Evidence on the Effects of Flexible Employment," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 60(2), pages 121-138, May.
    5. Roger Wilkins & Mark Wooden, 2013. "Gender Differences in Involuntary Job Loss: Why Are Men More Likely to Lose Their Jobs?," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(2), pages 582-608, April.
    6. Michael McGann & Kevin White & Jeremy Moss, 2016. "Labour casualization and the psychosocial health of workers in Australia," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 30(5), pages 766-782, October.
    7. Anja-Kristin Abendroth & Laura den Dulk, 2011. "Support for the work-life balance in Europe: the impact of state, workplace and family support on work-life balance satisfaction," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 25(2), pages 234-256, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. Alexis Esposto & Juan Felix Agudelo, 2019. "Casualisation of work and inequality in the Australian labour market," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 22(2), pages 53-74.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Temporary employment; casual work; HILDA Survey; work-life balance; work-family conflict; Australia; longitudinal methods;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J41 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Labor Contracts
    • J82 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Labor Force Composition
    • J28 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Safety; Job Satisfaction; Related Public Policy
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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