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Outsourcing and the Use of Contractors: Evidence from the AWIRS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Mark Wooden*
Affiliation:
National Institute of Labour Studies, Flinders University of South Australia

Abstract

Data from the two rounds of the Australian Workplace Relations Survey conducted in 1989/90 and 1995 are used to examine the extent of growth in outsourced labour (or contracting out), the characteristics of workplaces which are intensive users of outsourced labour, and the sources of growth in contractor-based employment. A key conclusion reached is that growth in the incidence of outsourcing is not a function of employment growth being most rapid in those types of firms and industries which have traditionally used contractors, but instead has taken place across a wide range of workplaces.

Type
Symposium on Outsourcing
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 1999

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Footnotes

*

The research reported in this paper is drawn from a larger study funded jointly by the Australian Research Council, the Business Council of Australia and the Committee for the Economic Development of Australia. The author thanks Adriana VandenHeuvel and an anonymous referee for helpful comments.

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