1301.0 - Year Book Australia, 2002  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 25/01/2002   
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Contents >> Labour >> Persons employed

People are considered to be employed if they were in paid work for one hour or more in the reference week. Those people who have a job or a business, but were absent from work in the reference week, are also considered to be employed. This section contains information about people who are employed, including their status in employment and whether they worked full-time or part-time. The section also includes information about people who are underemployed, that is, people who work part-time but would like to work more hours.

Relating employment levels to population levels enables the evaluation of the strength of job growth as compared to population growth. The measure relating these two levels is the employment/population ratio. Its usefulness lies in the fact that, while movements in the employment level reflect net changes in the levels of persons holding jobs, movements in the ratio reflect net changes in the number of persons employed relative to changes in the size of the population. The overall employment/population ratio rose from 58% in 1995-96 to 60% in 2000-01 (table 6.8).

The 55-59 year age group has shown the most notable increase over recent years (to 58% in 2000-01). For females in this group the employment/population ratio rose from 39% in 1995-96 to 47% in 2000-01, while for males the ratio rose from 66% to 69% over the same period. For males, the highest ratio in 2000-01 was for those aged 25-34 (89%), while for females, those aged 20-24 showed the highest proportion employed (72%).

6.8 EMPLOYED PERSONS, Employment/Population Ratios(a)

Age group (years)
1995-96

%
1996-97

%
1997-98

%
1998-99

%
1999-00

%
2000-01

%

MALES

15-19
46.6
46.8
45.7
46.5
48.3
49.0
20-24
76.4
75.5
75.1
76.7
77.9
76.7
25-34
86.1
85.7
85.7
85.7
86.1
89.3
35-44
87.1
86.4
86.9
87.0
86.9
87.0
45-54
83.7
82.9
82.1
82.9
83.3
83.4
55-59
66.1
66.6
66.6
67.7
68.2
68.6
60-64
42.8
42.3
42.9
43.2
44.0
44.5
Over 64
9.4
9.5
10.1
9.4
9.7
9.9
Total
67.5
67.1
66.9
67.2
67.6
67.6

FEMALES

15-19
48.2
47.6
47.2
48.8
50.4
51.0
20-24
70.0
68.7
68.4
69.5
70.9
72.0
25-34
63.1
63.0
64.3
64.2
64.8
66.7
35-44
67.8
67.3
65.9
66.3
67.1
68.1
45-54
64.2
64.5
65.0
66.3
67.3
67.9
55-59
39.0
40.2
40.2
41.7
44.6
46.5
60-64
17.2
18.1
18.5
18.1
19.9
21.2
Over 64
2.7
2.8
2.9
3.0
3.2
3.0
Total
49.7
49.5
49.5
50.0
51.0
51.8

PERSONS

15-19
47.4
47.2
46.4
47.6
49.3
50.0
20-24
73.2
72.1
71.8
73.1
74.4
74.4
25-34
74.5
74.2
75.0
74.9
75.4
76.5
35-44
77.4
76.8
76.3
76.6
77.0
77.5
45-54
74.0
73.8
73.6
74.7
75.3
75.7
55-59
52.8
53.6
53.6
54.9
56.6
57.7
60-64
30.0
30.1
30.7
30.6
32.0
32.9
Over 64
5.6
5.7
6.1
5.8
6.0
6.0
Total
58.4
58.1
58.1
58.5
59.2
59.6

(a) The employment/population ratio for any group is the number of employed persons expressed as a percentage of the civilian population aged 15 and over in the same group.

Source: Labour Force Australia (6203.0).

Table 6.9 shows information for employed persons according to their status in employment (i.e. employers, own-account workers, employees and contributing family workers, as in diagram 6.1). The number of employees continues to rise, up 190,600 since 1999-2000. The number of employers has fallen from 363,900 in 1995-96 to 329,700 in 2000-01, while the number of own-account workers has increased for the second year in a row, up 10,500 on the number recorded in 1999-2000.

6.9 EMPLOYED PERSONS, Status in Employment, Annual Average(a)(b)

1995-96

’000
1996-97

’000
1997-98

’000
1998-99

’000
1999-00

’000
2000-01

’000

Employers
363.9
338.9
357.3
349.8
339.2
329.7
Own-account workers
849.1
819.5
855.7
822.5
856.4
866.9
Employees
7,001.1
7,121.1
7,183.1
7,399.7
7,620.3
7,810.9
Contributing family workers
75.0
75.2
65.4
66.3
70.6
66.8
Total
8,289.2
8,354.7
8,461.4
8,638.4
8,886.5
9,074.3

(a) Data have not been revised to reflect definitional changes in the Labour Force Survey questionnaire introduced in April 2001. Data collected from April 2001 onwards are not strictly comparable with data collected in earlier periods. For further information, see Information Paper: Implementing the Redesigned Labour Force Survey Questionnaire (6295.0).
(b) Annual averages based on quarterly data.

Source: Labour Force Australia (6203.0).

Full-time workers are those who worked 35 hours or more during the reference week of the Labour Force Survey, or who usually work 35 hours or more each week. Part-time workers are those who usually work less than 35 hours a week and who did so during the reference week. In 2000-01 there were 4,421,700 males employed full-time (87% of male employment). The number of females employed full-time was 2,269,500 (56% of female employment). For males, part-time work is most prevalent among the younger (aged 15-19) and older (over 64) age groups (59% and 43% respectively). For females, at least a third of each age group work part-time, with the 15-19 (73%), over 64 (69%) and 60-64 (57%) age groups having the highest proportion of part-time workers (table 6.10).

6.10 EMPLOYED PERSONS, Full-time and Part-time Workers by Age, Annual Average(a) - 2000-01

Age group (years)

Units
15–19
20–24
25–34
35–44
45–54
55–59
60–64
Over 64
Total

MALES

Full-time workers
’000
144.7
424.6
1,145.0
1,195.7
1,015.5
297.6
139.9
58.7
4,421.7
Part-time workers
’000
198.8
107.1
99.2
73.6
80.9
44.3
37.7
44.6
684.3
Total
’000
339.5
531.7
1,244.3
1,271.3
1,096.4
341.9
177.6
103.4
5,106.0
Proportion of part-time workers
%
58.6
20.1
8.0
5.8
7.4
13.0
21.2
43.1
13.4

FEMALES

Full-time workers
’000
90.5
315.4
644.4
532.7
524.3
114.1
35.8
12.3
2,269.5
Part-time workers
’000
247.0
167.4
322.3
471.9
359.9
110.2
47.9
27.8
1,745.4
Total
’000
337.5
482.8
966.7
1,004.6
884.3
224.3
83.7
40.2
4,023.9
Proportion of part-time workers
%
73.2
34.7
33.3
47.0
40.7
49.1
57.2
69.2
43.4

PERSONS

Full-time workers
’000
235.2
740.0
1,789.4
1,728.3
1,539.8
411.7
175.7
71.0
6,691.2
Part-time workers
’000
441.8
274.5
421.5
547.5
440.8
154.6
85.6
72.5
2,438.8
Total
’000
677.0
1,014.5
2,210.9
2,275.8
1,980.7
566.2
261.3
143.5
9,129.9
Proportion of part-time workers
%
65.3
27.1
19.1
24.1
22.3
27.3
32.8
50.5
26.7

(a) Annual averages based on monthly data.

Source: ABS data available on request, Labour Force Survey.

Underemployed workers

Underemployment exists when people who are working part-time have a preference to work more hours. The number of underemployed workers is an important indicator of labour market performance. It highlights the unsatisfied aspirations of many workers for adequate work and greater earnings.

In September 2000 there were 9,138,200 employed persons aged 15 and over. Of these, 437,400 (5%) usually worked part-time and wanted to work more hours, and less than 1% usually worked full-time but worked part-time in the survey reference week for economic reasons (table 6.11).

6.11 UNDEREMPLOYMENT STATUS OF EMPLOYED PERSONS - September 2000

Males

’000
Females

’000
Persons

’000

Fully employed workers -
4,893.6
3,759.3
8,653.0
- Full-time workers
4,399.2
2,281.9
6,681.0
- Part-time workers
494.5
1,477.5
1,972.0
Usually work full-time but worked part-time for economic reasons
39.6
8.2
47.8
Usually work part-time and want more hours -
166.7
270.8
437.4
- Usually work part-time and want more part-time hours
42.4
125.3
167.7
- Usually work part-time and want full-time hours
124.3
145.4
269.7
Employed persons
5,099.9
4,038.3
9,138.2

Source: Underemployed Workers, Australia (6265.0).


Of all part-time workers who wanted more hours, 62% were female. Some 62% of part-time workers who wanted more hours reported that they would like to work full-time hours.

Graph 6.12 shows the usual hours worked and preferred number of extra hours of part-time workers. Of the persons who usually work between one and ten hours per week, almost half would like to work an extra 20 hours or more per week. For those persons usually working between 21 and 34 hours, the vast majority would prefer to work an extra 10 to 19 hours per week.





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