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Pathways from Casual Employment to Economic Security: the Australian Experience

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Abstract

Casual employment is extensive and has been increasing for more than two decades in Australia. The concept of casual employment used in the Australian context is unusual, but it is directly linked to benefit and rights exclusion within the regulatory framework governing employment. The expansion in casual employment has spread across all sectors, industries and occupations. Casual employment is associated with various forms of insecurity including income and employment insecurity. There are a number of ways in which the insecurity associated with casual employment could be reduced.

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Notes

  1. This component of casual employment is relatively small—around one ninth. Its exclusion does not affect the relatively high incidence of casual employment nor its strong growth.

  2. In 2001/02 the Employment Services Industry was responsible for over 3 million job placements in a total workforce of around 9.5 million. This is suggestive of the large amount of churning surrounding agency work in particular (Burgess et al. 2005).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Applied Social Research, RMIT University, GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne, VIC, 3001, Australia

    Iain Campbell & Robyn May

  2. Newcastle Business School, Callaghan, NSW, 2308, Australia

    John Burgess

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  1. John Burgess
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  2. Iain Campbell
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  3. Robyn May
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Correspondence to Iain Campbell.

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Burgess, J., Campbell, I. & May, R. Pathways from Casual Employment to Economic Security: the Australian Experience. Soc Indic Res 88, 161–178 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-007-9212-5

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