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This article debates the assertions made in a recent article by Dockery, Kelly, Norris and Stromback about the costs and benefits of New Apprenticeships for employers in Australia (indexed at TD/TNC 68.115). In this article, the authors asserted that the average employer lost money in employing trainees and that the net cost of employing an apprentice had risen in real terms by 68 per cent between 1996 and 2000. The authors of this current article dispute the validity of these findings on the basis of shortcomings in the methodology and the significant increase in the take-up of New Apprenticeships over the past five years. The authors conclude this debate by proposing their own approaches to the measurement of the cost of hiring apprentices. A reply to this critical analysis by Dockery, Kelly, Norris and Stromback is indexed at TD/TNC 69.629.

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Call centres are a source of job growth in many parts of the world. Jobs in call centres are a manifestation of the opportunities offered by [information and communication technology] ICT, together with the internal restructuring of organisations, to reduce costs and to achieve efficiencies. Extensive research has been conducted on the labour process in call centres, with findings suggesting that the work is demanding and high-pressured, entailing continuous operations with shift work being the norm, repitition and extensive monitoring and control. Moreover, call centres often have many female operatives, linked to non-standard work arrangements and the provision of emotional skills. Two features of call centres that are generally understated in the literature are their flat organisational structures and the use of team structures as a form of work organisation. There are often formal and informal mechanisms that could support flexible working arrangements, especially in the context of work-life balance issues. In this article we examine the impact of call centre work on work-life balance. Given the evidence of a high pressure work environment, we explore the types of working time arrangements in call centres, how working hours are determined, and the impact of these hours on work-life balance. Findings derived from a survey of 500 call centre operatives across ten call centre workplaces and focus group interviews suggest that, despite the intensive and regulated work regimes that there is flexibility available in terms of adjusting working time arrangements to support non-work responsibilities. A reconciliation of these developments is considered.

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Telework, the use of computer and communications technologies to work away from a central location, has been the topic of considerable discussion for many years. However, much of the literature on telework has been promotional, and there has been little by way of systematic research into the issues of implementation of telework at a organisational level. This paper is part of a broader research project which addresses these issues for managers, employees and unions. The paper summarises and discusses the findings of a survey of Australian organisations which investigated attitudes to, and experiences with, telework. The survey data show limited regular use of telework among Australian organisations in the industry sectors we examined, but also considerable variation in the types of telework and characteristics of teleworkers. While higher productivity was the most frequently cited perceived advantage of utilising telework, responses also suggest the persistence of implementation problems, and regulation of teleworking arrangements appears limited.

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The effects of the 2009 economic downturn in Australia, followed by a comparatively rapid recovery, have seen a surprising growth in the number of older workers in employment. If this increase in older workers is the harbinger of permanent change in the labour market, it can only come about if employers modify their traditionally negative attitude towards mature employees. In the first comprehensive overview of the literature and case studies, this paper explores employers’ attitudes towards older workers and finds that most of the stereotypical myths are readily overcome in the current labour market. If a labour shortage drives employers to offer more flexible working conditions as first seen in the Global Financial crisis, they will be taken up by the largest working cohort - the baby boomers - and the problem could be largely averted.

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This paper analyses the behaviour of Australian labour market transition rates. Since the early 1980s, the job-finding rate has been significantly more volatile than the job-loss rate and it is strongly pro-cyclical. The economic downturns of the early 1980s and early 1990s were associated with up to a 10 percentage points decline in the average job-finding rate. In comparison, the recent economic downturn was associated with a less significant decline in the job-finding rate. During these periods, the job-loss rate has shown less significant volatility. The findings of this paper suggest that the job search activities of workers are potentially more relevant in explaining the volatility of labour market variables such as the unemployment rate, and whether emerging skill shortages can be addressed. Policies that assist job search and the skills development of workers are important, as is the intensity of workers' search activity.

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On 3 June 2010, the Minimum Wage Panel of Fair Work Australia concluded its Annual Wage Review for 2009-10. Having considered the evidence from written public submissions, public consultations and a range of internal and external research, the Panel decided to increase minimum wage rates in modern awards by 26 dollars per week with effect from 1 July 2010. The increase brings the National Minimum Wage for adult employees to 569.90 dollars per week, or 15 dollars per hour for a standard 38-hour week, with proportionate increases for employees paid less than the adult rates. The decision is important for several reasons relating to: the context in which it was made; the impact it will have on living standards and business costs; and for what it signals about the future of minimum wage adjustment under the Fair Work Act 2009. I review the decision with respect to each of these themes in the following sections.

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This article presents a preliminary examination of long-term trends in apprentice intake in the New South Wales (NSW) State Government and State Owned Corporations (SOCs) and identifies the principal causes and implications of these trends. Since 1989 there has been a significant and sustained decline in NSW State Government annual apprentice intake. Although this decline has occurred in the context of a more general reduction in apprentice intake (especially in traditional trade fields such as building, electrical and metal) in the rest of the NSW economy, the relative decline in State Government intake greatly exceeds the reduction in apprentice intake amongst other (mostly private sector) employers in the state. The article argues that the primary cause of this decline has been the adoption by the NSW Government since 1989 of micro-economic reform and associated changes to the objectives and operation of State Government utilities and trading enterprises. This policy has resulted in significant cost-cutting, most notably a reduction in direct employment levels, which in turn has led to a reduced apprentice intake.

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An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 'Transitions and Risks: New Directions in Social Policy' conference in Melbourne, February 2005. The content of this article has been updated and re-written for this issue of the journal which focuses on the Transitional Labour Market (TLM) theory. Transitional labour markets (TLMs) are used as a descriptive device to investigate transitions between employment and other activities in Australia, and to identify groups most at risk of labour market exclusion. Using data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics of Australia (HILDA) survey, this article examines transitions between full-time work, three categories of part-time work, unemployment, unpaid caring, study, retirement, and 'not in the labour force but not studying or caring'. The results show that around 20 per cent of the adult population each year makes a transition into, out of, or within employment, combined with other activities such as study or caring. However, some groups are at much greater risk of 'exclusionary transitions'. These include workers who were retrenched within the last decade, those with less than year 12 education, people with long term health problems, migrants with poor English, parents with children under 5 years of age (especially sole parents), women and Indigenous people. Policy directions consistent with a TLM approach to improved employment participation for excluded groups include: a youth guarantee, retraining for workers and linked employment and training programs for the long-tem unemployed.

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Understanding the different concepts and causes of skills shortages is important if sound policies are to be developed in the areas of employment, education, training and skill formation. This paper outlines different perspectives of skills shortages held by economists, employers and unions. It then discusses the measurement and identification issues and provides an example illustrating the practical difficulties of assessing skill shortages. A number of policy options to deal with skills shortages are also discussed.

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This article provides a forecast for the Australian labour market over the next ten years and an analysis of threats and opportunities pertinent to employment growth. The first section presents basecase forecasts of employment in Australia by occupation for the period 1998-2010, reliant on the assumption that aggregate employment growth will average 1.5 per cent over this period. The authors then examine threats to the employment growth predicted in the basecase, i.e. a wage explosion, a loss of investor confidence, and a sharp deterioration in the terms of trade. This is followed by an analysis of the opportunities for greater employment growth than that suggested in the basecase. The MONASH methodology for generating occupational forecasts is used. MONASH is characterised as a dynamic general equilibrium model of Australia distinguishing 113 industries and 340 occupations. A device for explaining MONASH results, the factor-price-frontier (FPF) model, is included in the appendix and all mechanisms responsible for the results are explained within the article. The final section summarises the results and presents concluding remarks. The research revealed that the fastest growing occupations would be those requiring people skills or computer skills. The slowest growing occupations would be those requiring dexterity and strength. Show less