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3 results

  • 22 - Wealth and welfare

  • from Part 6 - Looking backwards and to the future
  • Edited by Simon Ville, University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Glenn Withers, Australian National University, Canberra
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Economic History of Australia
    Published online:
    05 September 2014
    Print publication:
    08 October 2014, pp 489-510

  • Summary

    In the 20th century a little regulated and rapidly growing labour market was transformed following the depression of the 1890s and Federation in 1901. This chapter focuses on four key aspects of the development of the Australian labour market since Federation. First are the patterns in the total labour supply as influenced by population increase, participation, hours of work and trends in labour-force composition. Second is the growth in workforce skills, as represented by the changing role and place of education, including vocational training. Third is the evolution of Australia's distinctive pattern of industrial relations, including the structure of wages. Fourth are the trends and fluctuations in average wages and unemployment. A resurgence of productivity from the microeconomic reform era of the 1980s and 1990s was dissipating by the second decade of the 21st century and was being seen as the dominant concern for future policy.