Part Time Employment: the Australian Experience
Key points
- Part time work has become an important form of employment growing from 10 per cent of total employment in 1966 to 29 per cent in 2007. The prevalence of part time work has increased for both men and women and for all age groups.
- Both supply-side and demand-side factors have driven the growth in part time employment.
- A key supply side factor includes the entry into the workforce of people combining employment and other activities such as education and raising a family.
- An important demand side factor is employers using part time employment to increase operational flexibility.
- The high level of casual work among part time workers means that they have less access to many conditions of full time employment.
- The part time workforce is a diverse group in terms of their characteristics and attitudes to work. The household circumstances of part time workers vary, as does the contribution of their labour income to the household budget - from being the only source of labour income to a negligible source.
- Part time workers are not a static group. There is considerable movement into and out of part time work both as labour market conditions change and as workers move through their life cycle and their work/life priorities change.
- At the aggregate level there appears little compelling evidence for a dual labour market between part time and full time work. Nonetheless, many workers find it difficult to change the number of hours that they work, suggesting that there may be some obstacles to mobility even in the current strong labour market.
- Since the early 1990s, 20-25 per cent of female part time workers and 30-35 per cent of male part time workers have indicated a preference to work more hours. At the same time, there is evidence to suggest that two full time workers want to move to part time work for every part time worker who wants to move to full time work.
- It is not clear what the impact on aggregate hours worked would be from any changes to working arrangements which allow a better matching of desired and actual working hours. That said, the well being of workers would be improved.
Background Information
02 6240 3251
Les Andrews, Assistant Commissioner