6265.0 - Underemployed Workers, Australia, Sep 1999  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 26/09/2000   
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MEDIA RELEASE

September 26, 2000
Embargoed: 11:30 AM (AEST)
126/2000

ABS: One in five part-time workers wants more work

One-fifth of Australia's part-time workers wanted to work more hours, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

In September 1999, 471,300 persons worked part-time and wanted to work more hours, a decrease of 6% from 1998. These people represented 21% of the 2.2 million part-time workers in Australia's labour force.

Sixty-three per cent of all people who worked part-time and wanted to work more hours were females, increasing from 60% in 1998. One-third of all part-time workers wanting to work more hours were under 25 years of age compared to 18% of fully employed workers.

Nearly two-thirds (62%) of part-time workers who wanted to work more hours reported that they would like to work full-time. Males were more likely to want full-time work (76%) than females (54%).

Other characteristics of part-time workers who wanted to work more hours were:
  • 36% reported that they worked 0-10 hours in the reference week, 32% worked 11-20 hours, 23% worked 21-29 hours and 9% worked 30 hours and over;
  • 59% had no post-school qualifications; and
  • 11% were lone parents (almost all were females).
On average, those part-time workers looking for, or available for work with more hours, wanted 15.7 extra hours each week. Males wanted to work more extra hours than females (17.5 hours and 14.6 hours respectively).

The duration of current period of insufficient work for people who worked part-time and wanted to work more hours was about 26 weeks on average.

Details are found in Underemployed Workers, Australia, September 1999 (cat. no. 6265.0) available from ABS bookshops. If you wish to purchase a copy of this publication, contact the ABS bookshop in your capital city.