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Changes over Time in Male and Female Employment Ratios in Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Robert Dixon
Robert Dixon*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of Melbourne
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Abstract

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This paper investigates changes over time in the proportion of the male and female population aged 15 and over who are employed. It is especially aimed at studying the influence of changes in the age composition of the population on this indicator. The main findings are: (a) while the underlying trends for males and females are in the opposite direction, both male and female employment ratios fall in recession and rise in recoveries; (b) changes in the age composition of the population (ageing, per se) can explain only a very small amount of the changes in the aggregate employment ratio for both males and females over the period 1978–2001; (c) the falling aggregate male employment ratio is not primarily or even largely a result of movements out of employment by older workers, indeed, over half of the reduction in the aggregate employment ratio for males is due to falling employment ratios for prime working-age males. Policy implications are discussed in the concluding section.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , April 2007 , pp. 69 - 75
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2007

Footnotes

*

I am grateful to John Freebairn and two referees for helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.

References

Black, B., Tseng, Y., Wilkins, R. (2004) The Decline in Male Employment in Australia: A Cohort Analysis, mimeo, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, University of Melbourne.Google Scholar
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Dixon, R., Thirlwall, A. (1975) Regional Growth and Unemployment in the United Kingdom, Macmillan, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar