Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T06:11:00.219Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Long-Term Unemployment: The Role of Wage Adjustments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Philip E.T. Lewis
Philip E.T. Lewis*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Murdoch University, Perth
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The problem of long-term unemployment has, at last, taken centre stage in the policy debate with the publication of the Green Paper Restoring Full Employment. While economic growth will reduce the general level of unemployment, to return the long-term unemployed to work will require increased training and reduction of labour costs. More recently the concept of a ‘training wage’ whereby employers would be allowed to pay below the current award wage to previously long-term unemployed has received some support. The Green Paper did not give much attention to training wages, preferring instead to focus on wage subsidies. In this paper the case for wage adjustments is discussed and evaluated.

Type
Symposium: Options to Reduce Long Term Unemployment
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , June 1994 , pp. 11 - 20
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 1994

Footnotes

*

The author would like to thank Keith Norris for his helpful comments and Sheila Anderson for her secretarial support.

References

Blanchard, O.J., Summers, L.H. (1986) ‘Hysteresis and the European Unemployment Problem’, in Fischer, S. (ed) NBER Macroeconomic Annual, MIT Press, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Chapman, B., Dowrick, S., Junanker, R. (1990) ‘The Impact of Corporatist Wage Setting on Long-Term Unemployment’, Centre for Economic Policy Research Working Paper, Australian National University.Google Scholar
Committee on Employment Opportunities (1993) Restoring Full Employment, AGPS, Canberra.Google Scholar
Flatau, P., Lewis, P.E.T., Rushton, A. (1990) ‘The Duration Composition of Unemployment in Australia, Hysteresis and Insider-Outsider Theory’, Murdoch Economics Working Papers, No. 43, October.Google Scholar
Flatau, P., Lewis, P.E.T., Rushton, A. (1991) ‘The Macroeconomic Consequences of Unemployment’, Australian Economic Review, 4th Quarter, pp. 48–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flatau, P., Kenyon, P., Lewis, P.E.T., Rushton, A. (1991) ‘The Accord, Corporatism and the Labour Market’ in Johnston, M., Kriesler, P., Owen, A. (eds.), Contemporary Issues in Australian Economics, Macmillan, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Hamermesh, D. (1993) Labor Demand, Princeton University Press, New Jersey.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kenyon, P. (1990) Insiders Outsiders and Corporatism: An Interpretation of the Empirical Evidence on the Effect of the Accord, Murdoch University, Economics Department, Working Paper No. 45.Google Scholar
Lewis, P.E.T. (1993) ‘An Overview of the Accord’, in Maxwell, P., Hopkins, S. (eds), Macroeconomics: Contemporary Australian Readings, Harper, Sydney.Google Scholar
Lewis, P.E.T., Kirby, M.G. (1987) ‘The Impact of Incomes Policy on Aggregate Wage Determination in Australia’ Economic Record, 63, June, 156–161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, P.E.T., Kirby, M.G. (1988) ‘A New Approach to Modelling the Effects of Incomes Policies’, Economic Letters, 28, 81–85.Google Scholar
Lewis, P.E.T., Spiers, D.J. (1990) ‘Six Years of the Accord — An Assessment’, Journal of Industrial Relations, 32, March, 53–68.Google Scholar
Lindbeck, A., Snower, D.J. (1988) The Insider-Outsider Theory of Employment and Unemployment, MIT Press, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Miller, P.W. (1994) Wage Subsidies, Economic and Labour Relations Review, this issue.CrossRefGoogle Scholar