Suicide rates in younger age groups in Australia, and in a number of other similar Western countries, have increased substantially since the 1960s. In Australia this rise has occurred contemporaneously with rises in youth unemployment rates, especially in males. Aggregate analyses investigating the relationship between these trends are reviewed for Australia, and compared with similar international aggregate studies of youth suicide and unemployment. Individual based studies investigating the role of unemployment in the causal pathways associated with suicide are also considered in this review. Aggregate suicide and unemployment data for males aged 20–24 years is presented to illustrate the changing relationship between unemployment and youth suicide over 1921–1998. The relationship between youth suicide rates and unemployment rates, particularly in males, is discussed in terms of the utility of using such indicators in evaluating suicide prevention initiatives. The applicability of aggregate variables in multi-dimensional explanations of suicide is also discussed.

The Third Way program for work, industrial relations and employment is examined. The discussion considers the publications of major third way proponents in the UK and Australia. It then considers what policies have been instituted under New Labour in the UK. The discussion then moves to the possibilities for Australia. Overall the Third Way program is either underdeveloped in some areas (eg the workplace) or largely following orthodox supply side policies in other areas (eg unemployment). The article concludes with a list of some of the important work and workplace issues that could be addressed by a new policy program.

Unemployment is a health hazard. There is increasing Australian and international evidence that people who are unemployed are more likely to have higher rates of mortality, morbidity (illness) and use of health services. The large numbers of people who are unemployed mean that the impacts of unemployment are just not felt at individual or family level but across the population as a whole. This paper outlines the evidence of the impact of unemployment on health and discusses some of the ways in which these health problems could be addressed through reorientation of health services, developing the skills of people who are unemployed, strengthening community action, creating environments that support people who are unemployed and their families, and the development of public policy. It discusses some of the difficulties in undertaking research in this area and calls for a more systematic approach to understanding the cost of unemployment.

The article explains why a ‘Third Way’ for economic management has become important in New Zealand. Economic growth fell sharply compared to Australia after 1984, due to a slow-down in New Zealand’s labour productivity growth after 1991. The paper argues this was partially the result of a neglected aspect of economic management during the 1984–94 decade of economic reform: fostering domestic physical capital formation. The third way differs from both the approach adopted prior to 1984 and the approach adopted during New Zealand’s reforms, based on government involvement, but not direct intervention, in industry and regional development.

Since the 1930s, research has indicated that unemployment has serious effects on physical and psychological well-being. Recent evidence confirms these findings and provides greater insight into the processes by which unemployment influences health. It is less widely recognised that job insecurity can also adversely affect the health and well-being of workers. This paper reviews the rapidly growing body of research on the health impact of job insecurity and organisational practices that produce insecurity, such as downsizing and restructuring. Our review identified sixty-eight studies, using a variety of methods and measures, published internationally since 1966. Eighty-eight per cent of these studies indicated that job insecurity was associated with diminished worker health and well-being. Implications of this finding for labour market and industrial relations policies, as well as occupational health and safety, are discussed.

We use data from the ABS National Health Surveys for 1989 and 1995 to assess if adverse selection is present as an influence on the proportions the ‘insurable population’ with health insurance (the ‘incidence of coverage’); and of those covered, the ‘risk composition’ of health fund membership. Further, we assess if any changes in these characteristics between the two surveys are consistent with a continuing process of adverse selection. The characteristics of the respective sample populations used in our evaluation include age and income distributions, health characteristics of various types, and behaviour that is known to incur health risks. Our findings suggest the presence of adverse selection in both 1989 and 1995, and in terms of the age distribution of membership and especially the number of health conditions suffered, changes composition of the health fund membership between the two surveys indicate the process of adverse selection accelerated over the period.

This article examines the power and purpose of union peak bodies, focussing on one particularly powerful organisation, the Barrier Industrial Council in Broken Hill. We argue that the power and purpose of all such bodies is multi-dimensional, historically contingent and spatially specific. The most illuminating studies conceptualise peak bodies as agents of mobilisation, with power delegated by affiliates, and of economic and political exchange, with power derived from a ‘structural coupling’ with the state and capital. However, there is a third possible peak body purpose: social regulation and, specifically, the regulation of labour and commodity markets. This was a conspicuous activity of the Barrier Industrial Council, underpinned by success in mobilisation and exchange and by ‘place consciousness’. Understanding the variety of potential power sources holds the key to explaining not only why some peak bodies command more power than others but also why there is so much variation in peak union focus and behaviour.

A burgeoning literature has emerged over the last decade examining the growth of the New Public Management model in the public sector. The literature, however, tends to overlook the implications of these reforms for employment relations in the public sector. This paper presents evidence from two major surveys from the mid-1990s that compare the impact of workplace change on Australian public and private sector workers. Public sector workers reported they were working more intensively, under greater stress and with less job security than private sector workers. They also reported that their satisfaction with their job, with management and with their work/family balance had declined to a greater extent than their private sector counterparts. These employee responses suggest, despite the assertions of public sector management reports to the contrary, that the NPM reforms in the Australian public sector have resulted in more intensive workloads, increased job-related stress and reduced job security for many Australian public sector employees in the 1990s.

Over a three year period from July 1997 to July 2000, the Australian government introduced a series of policies designed to increase the proportion of the population with private health insurance. The combined effect of the policies was an increase in the population coverage from a low point of 30.1 percent to 45.7 percent. The motivation for these policies was to force more Australians to use the private sector for their hospital care and in so doing reduce the pressure on the public sector. We piece together fragmentary early data from various sources and various time periods. We find that the increase in activity in the private hospital sector and the reduction in public hospital waiting times has indeed occurred.

This article examines the productivity performance of the Australian construction industry and identifies some of the key factors affecting productivity growth. It also critically assesses the recent Productivity Commission (1999) report on the construction industry. In particular, the article challenges the argument of the Productivity Commission that a high level of unionisation within the industry is adverse for productivity growth. Moreover, the recommendations of the Commission directed at increasing productivity within the industry are argued to exacerbate those structural features of the construction industry which impose a constraint on productivity growth. The primary data sources are national and international official economic data on the industry and a number of case studies of major city building projects undertaken by the authors. The study finds that the Australian construction industry is within the top three OECD countries in terms of construction output per person employed.

At various times in Australia’s recent history, the Commonwealth government has used the tax system to support its public health policy goals. Tax concessions to particular industries or groups of taxpayers cost the government the same as direct subsidies. However, the income distribution of these tax ‘carrots’ and ‘sticks’ has not previously been analysed. This study breaks new ground by examining how the benefits of tax concessions for health expenditures were distributed among taxpayer income groups in the four decades since 1960, and how this affects the progressivity of Australia’s system of funding health care. It is found that around half of the $2 billion tax subsidy for private health insurance accrues to the taxpayer group with the highest third of incomes.

This paper investigates the extent to which unemployment, particularly among older males, is hidden by the welfare system. It is argued that the official unemployment rate has fallen because of a decline in participation rates among older males since 1972, and a significant proportion of these can be accounted for by the increase in the percentage of males receiving the Disability Support Pension and the Mature Age Allowance. These males are considered the Labor Market Disabled, since the principal cause of them being on welfare is the weakness of the labor market in which they have traditionally found employment. The unemployment rate is then reconsidered after including the LMD into the calculation, producing a more pronounced hysteresis affect over successive business cycles. It is argued that active job creation programs are required to move these people from welfare to work.

In this paper, the costs and benefits of reform of the electricity industry in Australia are assessed. Issues addressed include the National Grid and the National Electricity Market, corporatisation, competitive restructuring, regulation, and privatisation.

The welfare reform debate is proceeding against a background of high unemployment and rising inequality. In Australia, the blueprint for reform of the social security system developed by the McClure Report is built around the notion of mutual obligation — the idea that those who receive support from government should be required to ‘give something back’. Public opinion is supportive of requiring mutual obligation of some groups of the unemployed, but it also supports the view that solving unemployment generally is the government’s responsibility. Although welfare reforms introduced in the US and UK have reduced the welfare rolls, their impact on wages and the labour market must also be considered. If welfare reform in Australia is to avoid the low wages and extreme poverty that are features of the US, welfare reform will need to be accompanied by reform of the labour market.

This paper addresses two questions with regard to Australia’s unemployment policies over the last decade: namely, the extent to which labour market reform has led to increased labour market flexibility; and the extent to which increased output per worker has meant that strong GDP growth has been translated into correspondingly large reductions in unemployment. With regard to the first question, we use shifts in the Beveridge Curve as a measure of changes in flexibility (following Solow). Shifts in the Beveridge Curve suggest that changes in the efficiency of labour market matching reflect the cyclical effects of hysteresis rather than the effects of labour market reform. With regard to the second question, we decompose changes in the output-employment ratio into structural effects, average hours effects, and residual factor intensity effects. We identify those sectors of the economy in which output per worker has increased significantly.

This paper investigates two related matters. First, what proportion of the population is represented by the matched sample (i.e. by the gross flows data) in the Labour Force Survey, why is this proportion what it is and why does it vary over time? Second, given that around 20% of the population are not represented in the matched sample, how representative are labour market indices derived from the matched sample data and, if biases are present, what is the source and what are the implications of the bias?