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Casual Employment in Australia: Growth, Characteristics, a Bridge or a Trap?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

John Burgess  and
Iain Campbell
Iain Campbell
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of Newcastle and National Key Centre in Industrial Relations, Monash University.
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Abstract

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About one in every four Australian employees is a casual. The casual share has doubled over the past decade and continues to expand. This paper catalogues the growth of casual employment and discusses the characteristics of casual jobs and of those in casual jobs. The key analytical issue discussed is whether casual employment is a transitional employment arrangement on the road towards permanent employment conditions. Alternatively, is it a trap which is associated with job insecurity, low earnings and spells outside of employment? Although the evidence is partial and circumstantial, casual employment is a bridge for some and a trap for others. In particular, for those who wish to beak out of unemployment, casual employment is unlikely to be a transitional point on the road to a permanent job. This finding has important implications for the design of labour market programs.

Type
Symposium on Dimensions of Precarious Employment
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , June 1998 , pp. 31 - 54
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 1998

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