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This paper investigates the extent to which employees with a casual employment contract can be seen as a group with broadly similar personal characteristics and work arrangements. Individual-level data from the August 1998 Forms of Employment Survey (FOES) is used to demonstrate that casual contract employees are diverse in at least three areas: (1) institutional arrangements; (2) personal characteristics; and (3) work arrangements. The results suggest that the circumstances of casual contract employees vary significantly and, in some cases, are not that much different from ongoing employment. Therefore, whether an employee has a casual contract reveals little about their welfare. When concerns are raised about 'precarious' employment, the authors suggest that analysts need to identify such employment on the basis of work arrangements rather than the type of employment contract. Show less

This paper aims to provide an overview of the changing role of part-time work in Australia and was released on 12 June 2008. The objectives of the paper are to: provide a comparison of part-time work in Australia and overseas, and possible reasons for our relatively high reliance on this form of work; present an assessment of the changing role of part-time work in Australia; identify groups (older workers, younger workers, prime age workers) that are availing themselves of part-time work; and [identify] industries that have higher proportions of part-time workers and how these have been changing over time.

Published abstract from Productivity Commission website. Copyright Commonwealth of Australia reproduced by permission. Show less

Australia has an ageing population, with the proportion of people aged 65 and over expected to more than double over the next few decades. This situation will affect Australia’s long term economic prospects. This draft research report responds to an Australian Government request for the Productivity Commission to examine the productivity, labour supply and fiscal implications of likely demographic trends over the next 40 years. The report has been prepared for further public consultation and input, and the Productivity Commission will submit its final report to the Treasurer and the Council of Australian Governments in March 2005. The study complements but updates and builds on the Australian Treasury’s Intergenerational Report published in 2002 (indexed at TD/TNC 69.85). A key distinguishing feature is that it includes detailed projections for the States and Territories. Key points from the report are that: population ageing will give rise to economic and fiscal impacts that pose significant policy challenges; as more people shift into older age groups, overall labour force participation rates are expected to drop; falling participation and average hours worked will slow Australia’s labour supply growth, in spite of a projected decline in unemployment rates; based on the average labour productivity performance of the past three decades, gross domestic product (GDP) growth per capita will drop to around half its present level by the mid 2020s although this could be improved with a sustained increase in productivity; the major source of budgetary pressure will be health care costs; fiscal gaps opened by ageing are mostly expected to fall on the Commonwealth government, but there are significant burdens on State and Territory governments; it will be important to improve productivity and achieve more cost-effective services provision, particularly in health care. Show less

The annual Report on Government Services (RoGS) provides information on the equity, effectiveness and efficiency of government services in Australia. The report is presented in seven parts: Part A - Approach to performance reporting; Part B - Child care, education and training; Part C - Justice; Part D - Emergency management; Part E - Health; Part F - Community services; and Part G - Housing and homelessness. Data in the 2023 report may be impacted by Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and this has been noted in the report.

Part B, section 5, 'Vocational education and training', contains performance information for vocational education and training (VET) services. There are 11 indicators within the VET framework measuring access, appropriateness, quality, efficiency and outcomes. The indicators are: Barriers to participation in VET by selected equity group; Barriers to participation in VET; Students who achieve main reason for training; Employer satisfaction with VET; Student satisfaction with quality of training; Service quality; Government recurrent expenditure per annual hour; Student employment and further study outcomes; Student completions and qualifications; Students who improved education status; and Skill utilisation.

Edited excerpts from publication. Show less

This report examines the changing size distribution of firms and, in particular, some implications of the growing importance of smaller firms in the Australian economy. The report is divided into six chapters. The economics of small business labour markets and the policy implications of the report are contained in chapter six. The other chapters provide a detailed analysis of four main areas: (1) aggregate trends in the share of small business in employment between 1983 and 1995; (2) the extent to which changes in employment shares cast light on the job creation of various firm size categories; (3) sectoral analysis of changes in the size distribution of firms, based on employment share data for 14 major sectors from 1983-84 to 1994-95; and (4) relative earnings and job characteristics in small versus large businesses. Supporting data is provided in a series of appendices. Show less

Australia has an ageing population, with the proportion of people aged 65 and over expected to more than double over the next few decades. This situation will affect Australia's long term economic prospects. This research report results from an Australian government request for the Productivity Commission to examine the productivity, labour supply and fiscal implications of likely demographic trends over the next 40 years. One of the key points raised in the report is the economic and fiscal impacts of population ageing and the significant policy implications. The labour force participation rates of people aged over 55 years is significantly lower than the rates for younger people and as more people move into older age groups, the overall participation rates are projected to drop from around 63.5% in 2003-04 to 56.3% by 2044-45. The hours worked per capita is expected to be about 10% lower than without ageing and, assuming the average labour productivity performance of the past 30 years, per capita gross domestic product (GDP) growth will slump to 1.25% per year by the mid 2020s, half the rate of 2003-04. The contents are: Introduction; Ageing of the Australian population; Ageing and labour markets; Productivity and ageing; Economic growth implications; Health expenditure; Aged care expenditure and carer payments; Personal benefit payments; Education expenditure and ageing; Other expenditure; Revenue; Local government and regional impacts; Implications of population ageing. Included as appendices are: Submissions and consultations; Education and labour force participations; Health expenditure projection methods and sensitivity analysis; Non-demographic growth in health expenditure; Voluntary work; Fiscal risks for governments.

The draft research report, which invited public consultation and input and which led to this final report, is indexed at TD/TNC 80.82; the research report overview is indexed at TD/TNC 81.219. Show less

The Australian Government has asked the Commission to investigate the further development of a national education evidence base. The task is to consider the case for, and specific nature of, a national evidence base to inform policy development and improve education outcomes in early childhood and school education. The appropriate level of funding provided by governments and formulae used by governments to fund [early childhood education and care] ECEC and schools are not within the scope of this inquiry. Specifically, the Commission has assessed and made recommendations about: the information required to create a comprehensive evidence base; data collections that would add value to the evidence base; addressing barriers to the sharing of education data; factors that inhibit access to and use of data; and the role that technology can play. The Commission has looked at these issues through the lens of their costs and benefits.

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While a significant amount of data is currently collected on students, schools and the workforce, data reported nationally is more limited and often inconsistent. Valuable data is also collected outside schools, including in early childhood education and care. Improved access and greater ability to link and analyse national data could enhance the quality and scope of national education evidence that can be used to monitor educational outcomes and inform policy development and evaluation. Through consultation with states and territories, education authorities and other key stakeholders, this Inquiry will help to identify current investment in national data collection and education evidence, opportunities to collectively invest further, and how we can improve the effectiveness of our investment through a more streamlined, comprehensive and collaborative national approach. Improving the collection and management of education data in Australia will assist to create a more robust national education evidence base for effective policy and program development to meet the national education objectives and lift the national productivity. This draft report invites written submissions before the release of the final report.

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This study focuses on youth employment, in particular, the factors influencing the demand for youth workers and the interaction between youth and adult employment. Its purpose is to examine the determinants of youth employment in order to identify the possible implications of replacing junior rates of pay in State and Federal awards with non-discriminatory alternatives. The study uses econometric analysis of a large cross sectional dataset, the Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey 1995 (AWIRS 95), to separate the influence of wages from the influence of other factors affecting youth employment. The analysis reveals a significant negative relationship between youth employment and youth wages. The best estimates suggest that a one per cent increase in youth wages would lead to a decrease in youth employment of between two and five per cent in industries employing a relatively high proportion of youth. The evidence of a relationship between youth and adult employment is much less robust. To the extent that replacing such awards with non-discriminatory alternatives would lead to an increase in youth wages, the results suggest quite strongly that there would be a more than proportionate reduction in youth employment. An assessment of the effect on adult employment, however, is hampered by data limitations. Show less

This study extends a line of research that the Productivity Commission has developed over the last few years on the factors influencing labour supply decisions in various segments of the Australian labour market. Drawing on Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) panel data, the paper estimates the influences affecting married women's participation in the labour force and how this changes with changes in their lives. The analysis provides useful estimates of parameters that assist in predicting how changes in these well-known factors affect labour force participation. It finds that there is no inherent state dependence in labour force status for married women, but rather that the observed inertia arises from unobserved individual characteristics.

Excerpt from publication. Copyright Commonwealth of Australia reproduced by permission. Show less