Indigenous people are more likely to be discouraged from looking for work than other Australians. Data from the 1994 National Aboringinal and Torres Strait Islander Survey are used to analyse the factors that lead many indigenous people who want to work to not seek work, and hence remain outside...

Australia is indeed a sunburnt country, and is arguably becoming increasingly sunburnt. If most climate predictions are correct, much of Australia will experience droughts even more often. This paper uses the Rural and Regional Families Survey to explore the economic and financial implications...

This paper provides evidence on changes in the labour force status of Indigenous and other Australians since the mid-1990s, a period of strong macroeconomic growth. The paper expands the standard definitions of labour supply to consider marginally attached workers—people who want to work but...

The extent to which an increase in the unemployment rate has an effect on children’s wellbeing is not well understood. This article provides estimates of the potential impact of an increase in the unemployment rate on behavioural and emotional outcomes for New South Wales (NSW) children aged...

Estimates of the costs of children are used in the design of a wide range of economic and social policies. This paper provides a review of the different approaches that have been used to define the costs of a child and the estimation methods used. The paper summarises the results of Australian...

Over the last two decades there has been a substantial increase in the proportion of lone mothers employed part-time, while the proportion employed full-time was much the same in 2005 as it was in the early 1980s. The experience of couple mothers is quite different, with both full-time and...

While the lower rates of employment of lone mothers as compared with couple mothers has been well-documented, the reasons for the employment gap are less well understood. This paper uses data from the 1996 Australian Census to analyse the factors which explain the employment gap. We find that...

The collection of the National Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Social Survey (NATSISS) in 2002 provides a valuable new source of data on Indigenous labour force status. Apart from the 1994 NATSIS until now the only useful data available to assess the labour market circumstances of Indigenous...

The average hours worked by full-time employees in Australia have increased since the late 1970s. This, combined with increases in female labour force participation, has led to concerns about the impact of long work hours on family life. This paper explores the relationship between fathers' work...

Indigenous Australians in the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme have been working for welfare payments since 1977. One of the objectives of the scheme is to assist Indigenous Australians develop work skills which lead to 'mainstream' employment. This paper uses a case study...