The 1990s in Australia was characterised by relatively strong and persistent economic growth. For example, over the 8-year period 1992/93 to 1999/2000 GDP growth averaged 4.2 per cent per annum, well in excess of that experienced in most other Western nations. More importantly, growth in GDP per capita over this same period averaged 3 per cent per annum, not far behind the levels recorded during the 1960s (3.3 per cent over the decade), a period generally described as one when full employment prevailed. Moreover, despite a slowdown in 2000/01, economic growth accelerated again in 2001/02, growing by almost 4 per cent in the 12 months ended June 2002.

As would be expected, these relatively high persistent rates of output growth have translated into relatively high rates of growth in income. Real household disposable income per capita over the 10 years to June 2002 grew by 18 per cent, or an average of 1.6 per cent per annum.

The aim of this paper is to consider some of the issues raised by three recently published books: Unemployment: The Tip of the Iceberg edited by Mitchell and Carlson; The Price of Prosperity, edited by Saunders and Taylor; Work Rich, Work Poor edited by Borland, Gregory and Sheehan (referred to here as MC, ST and BGS) analysing recent trends in the Australian Labour Market.

For the decade since 1992, Australia has experienced a sustained rate of strong economic growth unprecedented in Australian economic history. This period of continuous strong growth in GDP has been accompanied by low inflation. (We might say that the low inflation has permitted the strong sustained growth because it has meant that the Reserve Bank of Australia has not seen the need over the period to impose the sort of draconian restrictive monetary policy of 1990-1.) The strong growth performance has been in the face of the Asian currency crisis from 1997, a recessed Japanese economy over the decade, slow growth in most of Europe, and some hesitations in the performance of the primary engine of world economic growth, the US economy.

The last two decades have witnessed the unraveling of the Keynesian consensus and full employment that characterized the quarter century after World War II. Inequality and poverty have deepened and hundreds of thousands of Australians no longer have job security and are being intermittently or permanently shut out of the formal economy. This review article examines the social costs of unemployment focusing on The Price of Prosperity: The Economic and Social Costs of Unemployment (TPOP) edited by Peter Saunders and Richard Taylor.

The TPOP is an ambitious endeavour to quantify the costs of employment in a number of areas. Thus there are chapters on the impact of unemployment on health, poverty, inequality, indigenous Australians, youth, the family, crime and urban neighbourhoods. The chapters are consummate reviews of major Australian and international studies on the impact of unemployment, making the book a key text.

Organizations and governments have improved their environmental data collection and reporting performance since 1992, but it is still limited and focussed on specific problem solving rather than providing a national accounting framework for addressing environmental problems. In Australia evidence of the consideration of ‘sustainability’ goals in data collection and disclosure is growing through the development of ‘state of the environment’ reporting. The development of integrated environmental, economic and social information to support the application of more radical environmental modernisation ideas by organizations and governments is weak. Private and public sector organization reporting has improved, but there are still insufficient incentives to enhance it. This paper suggests more systematic reporting at the aggregate level by governments is essential if the environment is to be managed in a regular, balanced, sustainable and responsible way.

Throughout the 1990s, public hospitals embarked on a range of benchmarking exercises for support services, often accompanied by downsizing and, in some cases, outsourcing. These support services included clinical areas such as, radiology, pharmacy and pathology, and non-clinical areas of catering and cleaning, engineering and environmental services. The impetus for this trend was the introduction of the Federal Government’s National Competition Policy with its rationale that private sector pressures and competition would make the public sector more efficient.

Through a case study approach, this paper discusses this process at two public hospitals, the aim being to investigate the reasons for outsourcing, outsourcing’s interconnectedness with downsizing, and the implications at the workforce level. Workplace issues discussed include consultation between management, unions and employees, changes to employee numbers and work practices, maintenance of workplace conditions, implications for staff recruitment and retention, and the relative power of management and unions. It concludes that benchmarking, outsourcing and downsizing have all been used to bring about workplace change. Whilst the choice between processes may be dependent on management perception of the workplace environment, implications for the workplace from each process have been similar.

Extensive organisational downsizing and restructuring has occurred in many countries since the 1980s. The negative consequences for workers forced into unemployment are well recognised. However, a growing body of evidence suggests there are also substantial, though less obvious, negative effects on workers who are retained. These effects may include impaired teamwork and productivity, damaged social networks and diminished social support, negative attitudes to work, elevated work-life conflict, a greater prevalence of negative health behaviours and impaired physical and psychological health. A cluster of behavioural and health effects observed amongst retained workers, described as ‘survivor syndrome’, is characterised by demoralisation, risk aversion, diminished organisational commitment and poorer health. These negative effects may be moderated to some extent by factors such as personality, gender, organisational level and age. A focus on more specific research questions and methodological refinements are likely to enhance future research in this area.

The very basis of Japan’s post-war economic growth was time and place specific. A fundamental failure to recognise the temporary nature of Japan’s success led the Japanese to make ad hoc changes, which served largely to prop up the prevailing status quo. Inevitably, Japan’s ability to sustain the level of growth required to maintain its economic system periodically faltered, before collapsing in the nineties.

This paper is an analysis of the fiscal effects of the privatisation of the Victorian electricity industry. Privatisation is found to be approximately neutral in its effect on the net worth of the Victorian public sector. The buyers of electricity assets lost money, apparently because they anticipated more favourable regulatory treatment than they actually received. Electricity prices were increase prior to privatisation, and are still higher than those in states where the electricity industry has remained in public ownership, but consumers were not directly affected by privatisation as such. There were reductions in employment both before and after privatisation.