1. Introduction
The last three decades of the twentieth century are likely to be seen as a time of exceptional change—not unique but neither predicted nor predictable—in the Australian economy, forms of employment and workforce composition. This study reviews and summarises the available statistical series on the labour market during the last 30 years, or as much of it as was covered by usable statistics. Graphical presentation is used where possible. Tables corresponding to the figures appear in the statistical appendix. Some important topics were either absent or ill-defined in the statistics but were identifiable from other sources.
Similar things happened in other countries, although the details and timing of events in Australia were affected by its particular system of industrial relations which itself was undergoing change. Another factor was Australia's equally unusual but resilient social security system.
In attempting to trace changes in the Australian labour force and types of employment, the principal source is published data from the ABS Labour Force Survey. This survey of occupants of a sample of occupied dwellings has been conducted in State capitals from November 1960 and nationally from February 1964, first quarterly and then monthly from February 1978. In 2001, the sample comprises approximately 0.5 per cent of the population. Over the years, the main changes were expansion of the questionnaire and finer distinctions within broad categories. The sample was rotated by replacing a fraction—one-eighth in 2001—in each successive month.
Some data were collected yearly, less often or irregularly by addition of appropriate items to the monthly questionnaire, and were reported separately.
Most of the information presented here is calculated as employment ratios—persons actually employed as a proportion of the whole demographic category they belong to—rather than as the employed as a proportion of job-holders plus unemployed jobseekers. Individuals are classified simply as working or not. By international convention, 'employed' means gainfully employed for one hour or more per week, and 'full-time employment' means employed for 35 hours or more.
The statistics provide a clear picture of the composition of the employed labour force over time by age, sex, family status and hours of work, and of tendencies for working life to be abbreviated at one end by extended formal education and at the other by non-employment, particularly of older men, sometimes referred to imprecisely as 'early retirement'. Despite adoption during the period of an improved system of occupational and industrial classification, these reveal comparatively little about the content of peoples' jobs.
The names or definitions of some statistical categories render them liable to misunderstanding. Casual employment and self (or 'own-account') employment are such categories. Each covers a range of patterns of employment and contractual arrangements, some of which have been reflected in disputes coming before courts and other tribunals. This study attempts to distinguish the various meanings attached to the terms.
Multiplicity of meanings contributed to a perception that one trend was towards greater insecurity of employment in general. However, that perception was not confirmed by statistics on rates of job change and job loss.
Trends in several forms of employment associated with changes in organisational practices and indicated by occasional collections or special studies can be distinguished only dimly in the regular population statistics, if at all. Examples include provision of business services or temporary staff by one entity under contract to another.
Causes of the long process of change were undoubtedly complex. The regularity and international character of changes imply that these were systemic, and moderated rather than initiated by political and cultural factors. In Australia, a severe recession at the beginning of the 1990s produced at most a temporary deviation from long-term trends. However, by the end of the decade, after several years of sustained recovery and growth, it seemed possible—but only possible—that a new state of equilibrium was being reached. If so, that order would present problems as well as opportunities for public policy.