Unit 2 Outcome 2

Work is defined as being productive in one of the following forms  Full-time paid employment  Part-time, casual and contracted employment  self-employment  Unpaid work e.g. home duties, voluntary work, community service, and education and training

 Making money – income  Improving lifestyle  Pleasure in work  Social outlet  Support for family and friends  Challenge  Vocational identity “What do you do?”  Contributing to society  Contributing to Australian economy  Expectations of others E.g. Continue family business

 To determine the rate of unemployment the Australian Bureau of Statistics conducts regular surveys of the labour force  The unemployed are persons aged 15 years and over who were not employed during the survey week, or who have actively looked for work in the four week period leading up to the survey week  The rate of unemployment is then the percentage of the labour force that is actively seeking employment

 Over the past 20 years the unemployment rate has been dominated by the recessions of the early 1980s and the early 1990s and periods of economic recovery in between.  The unemployment rate peaked at 10.7% in December 1992, then generally fell over the rest of the 1990s. The current unemployment rate is 5.8%.  Current Trends and monthly change (September 2009)  Employment increased to 10,786,000  Unemployment increased to 664,700  Unemployment rate remained at 5.8%  Participation rate decreased to 65.1%  Aggregate monthly hours worked increased to 1,515.4 million hours (Australian Bureau of Statistics website 2009)

 Job growth in Australia over the 1990s was predominantly in part-time and casual employment.  Industries that used to employ blue-collar workers (manual workers e.g. Miners, hairdressers, cleaners & mechanics) have been declining  Industries that feature casual employment are on the rise.  This means that more jobs are insecure and part-time, and that people who have been employed in a particular industry all their lives find that they are no longer suitable for the work on offer.

 MALES The trend estimates of unemployed males generally fell from 370,700 in September 1999 to 342,000 in August The trend then rose sharply to 392,000 in September 2001, before falling to 234,100 in March The trend has since risen to stand at 376,200 in September  FEMALES The trend estimates of unemployed females generally fell from 270,800 in September 1999 to 239,700 in September The trend then rose sharply to 290,200 in October 2001, before generally falling to stand at 226,400 in March The trend has since risen to stand at 288,600 in September  PERSONS The trend estimates of unemployed persons generally fell from 641,500 in September 1999 to 582,900 in September The trend then rose sharply to 682,100 in October 2001, before generally falling to 460,500 in March The trend has since risen to stand at 664,700 in September  This page last updated 7 October 2009 (from the Australian Bureau of Statistics website)

 Educational qualifications have a significant bearing on labour market prospects.  Of unemployed persons with a bachelor degree or above the percentage of long-term unemployed is usually around half that of those who have completed Year 10 or below.  The proportion of Indigenous people of workforce age who were unemployed is more than three times that for the overall population.  The youth unemployment rate is about double the overall unemployment rate.

 The Australian government has identified three dimensions of Australia’s multicultural policy:  Cultural identity: The right of all Australians, within carefully defined limits, to express and share their individual cultural heritage, including their language and religion.  Social justice: The right of all Australians to equality of treatment and opportunity, and the removal of barriers of race, ethnicity, culture, religion, language, gender or place of birth.  Economic efficiency: The need to maintain, develop and utilize effectively the skills and talents of all Australians, regardless of background.

 Political factors influencing the workplace  Democracy and democratic practice leading to awareness of inequalities in our workplace (E.g. Anti discrimination acts, Equal Pay Acts 1972, right to maternity leave in 1979, the Sex Discrimination Act in 1984, also changes to occupational health and safety )  Policy changes (E.g. Increasing the school leaving age to 17 – higher education levels, treatment of asylum seekers – net overseas migration accounts for 63% of population increase )  Mutual obligation (E.g. Work for the dole)

 Economic factors  Workplace changes: more women in workforce (in 1947 less than 10%, now over 50%), more part-time/casual jobs (in the 1960s 1 in 10 jobs today 1 in 4), no longer full-time job market for school leavers ( increase school leaving age)  Greater division between rich and poor (one-tenth of Australian households now own 45 per cent of our wealth while half of households own only 7 per cent)  Changing nature of employment means that educational and training institutions have difficulties in working out industries needs and older workers who become unemployed are more likely to stay unemployed  Economic downturn changes consumerism changes what is produced E.g. decline in the market for luxury items, increase in green industries

 A local skills shortage resulted in foreign labour via the 456 visa.  Employees of multinational companies have faced redundancy following the world economic crisis.  Low-skilled jobs have been moving ‘off shore’ to developing countries promoting sweat-shop labour.

 Technological factors  Internet and global communication, mobile phones, transport (car, planes, etc)  E.g., people are moving around more for work, working from home, jobs are being done more cheaply by someone overseas or faster using a computer.  Globalisation means that business success is linked to developments in the global markets.

 Social factors  The way employees socialise and communicate have changed due to technology.  Work/home division (Work-life balance, increase in child care workers)

 Social factors  Divorce and single-parent families (There are over ½ a million households comprising of a lone parent with dependent children. People living in these households receive the lowest average disposable household income. Over half of one-parent households were reliant on government pensions as their principle source of income)

All of these social factors have also impacted on the Australian workplace  Migration (and ethnic tensions/terrorism)  Feminism: later marriages, out marriage (marrying out of ethnic/religious community) falling birth rate.  Materialism and consumerism.  Rural access and equality e.g. the impact of unemployment in regional communities with large blue- collar workforce.

 Globalisation has enhanced individualism, consumerism and competition  Move from manufacturing industries to service industries has opened up the workplace to more women, which in turn has changed family structures and shifted family functions to other institutions (e.g., schools)  Globalisation has also impacted on migration, ethnicity, multiculturalism, etc

 New jobs and industries will emerge and change quickly so life-long learning is considered important.  More jobs in green industries (environmentally friendly goods and services) are emerging.  Social harmony is considered important so more jobs working on solutions to inequalities in Australian society are emerging.