Economics Assessment

1. The Australian workforce

The current Australian workforce as of February 2011 is 12,037,800. The Australian workforce consists of 11,433,700 employed people and 604,100 unemployed persons. The employed part of the workforce can be split up into the main industries that make up our economy. This shows how our employed part of the workforce is structured. The following table shows how the employed Australian workforce is spread out (data taken from 2006 census and I left out other services and the inadequately described as it didnt help show the structure of our workforce). Number of males Number of females Total employed by employed by Industry industry industry 187,008 (2.3%) 270,220 83,212 (1%) Agriculture, forestry & (3.3%) fishing 85,993 (1%) 15,603 (0.12%) 101,596 Mining (1.2%) 674,747 (8.2%) 238,428 (2.9%) 913,175 Manufacturing (11.1%) Electricity, gas, water & 67,878 (0.83%) 19,242 (0.23%) 87,120 waste services (1.1%) 568,642 (6.9%) 93,250 (1.1%) 661,892 Construction (8%) 251,254 (3.1%) 133,833 (1.6%) 385,087 Wholesale trade (4.7%) 426,785 (5.2%) 570,636 (6.9%) 997,421 Retail trade (12.1%) Accommodation & food 235,362 (2.9%) 312,368 (3.8%) 547,730 services (6.7%) Transport, postal & 310,146 (3.8%) 96,033 (1.2%) 406,179 warehousing (9.6%) Information media & 99,376 (1.2%) 73,446 (0.89%) 172,822 telecommunications (2.1%) Financial & insurance 155,997 (1.9%) 186,357 (2.3%) 342,354 services (4.2%) Rental, hiring & real 74,325 (0.9%) 76,657 (0.93%) 150,982 estate services (1.8%) Professional, scientific & 321,975 (3.9%) 268,813 (3.3%) 590,788

technical services Administrative & support services Public administration & safety 130,082 (1.6%) 332,497 (4%) 207,826 (2.5%) Education & training Health care & social assistance 142,700 (1.7%) 262,179 (3.2%) 474,514 (5.8%)

(7.2%) 272,782 (3.3%) 594,676 (7.2%) 682,340 (8.3%) 926,462 (11.3%) 122,894 (1.4%) 8,226,520

197,841 (2.4%) 63,775 (0.75%)

728,621 (8.9%) 59,119 (0.72%)

Arts & recreation services

Total

(I would estimate that in the census this year the mining industry percentage of the number of jobs would have expanded a large amount.) This structure of the industry however is not shown in Bathurst as Bathurst has a higher percentage of the employed being in the education and training compared with the Australian workforce. This is probably because of CSU. We also have a lower percentage of people employed by the mining industry. Bathurst also varies in the fact that it has more females being employed than males (counting part time jobs) than the Australian workforce as of 2006 census. This shows that in Bathurst women are growing percentage in the workforce as in the 2001 census there were more men employed.

2. Workforce participation
The current workforce participation rate is 65.8% which means the current population between 15 and 65 is 18,294,590 persons. The gradual trend of the Australian workforce participation rates is of a slow increase. This can be shown by the participation rates of each year in February: - 2011- 65.8% - 2006-64.4% - 2010-65.2% - 2005-64% - 2009-65.4% - 2004-63.5% - 2008-65.2% - 2007-64.8

This trend can also be shown by even older data such as in 1966 the participation rate was 59.9% as in 1975 the participation rate was 61.6% so it had increased. This is a general trend across all participation rates for example in 2009 the participation rates for aboriginals and Torres Strait islanders was 46% as in Australian Participation Rates 2010 it is 56%. In the central west however the 65.8 66 participation rate is slightly 65.4 65.2 65.2 65.5 lower at 64.5% and this rate 64.8 65 64.4 is 1.3% lower than in 2009. 64.5 64 Compared with Inner and 64 Participation Rate 63.5 Western Sydneys 63.5 participation rate (71%) the 63 62.5 Central West is far behind 62 and the fact that Inner and Western Sydney are increasing as the Central Year West is decreasing means the gap will just increase.
Percentage

3. Workforce unemployment
The current unemployment rate is 5% for Australia and over the past decade the unemployment rate has hovered around this rate. - 2011-5% - 2007-4.6% - 2010-5.3% - 2006-5.2% - 2009-4.9% - 2005-5.1% - 2008-4.1% - 2004-5.8% In the central west the unemployment is higher than the Australian unemployment rate (5.9%) however the unemployment Australias Unemployment Rate rate has decreased by 0.3%. 7 One part of the workforce that 5.8 is disproportionally different 6 5.3 5.2 5.1 5 4.9 to the average is the aboriginal 4.6 5 4.1 and Torres straight islanders. 4 They have an unemployment 3 rate as of July 2009 of 18% 2 which has increased by 4% 1 since 2008. This is a rapid 0 increase in unemployment.
Percentage

20 04 20 05 20 06 20 07 20 08 20 09 20 10 20 11

Series2

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Year

Combining this with the fact they have a low participation rate it shows that the aboriginal and Torres straight islanders are not being used effectively in our economy.

4. A) technology impacts
Technology can affect the Australian workforce by decreasing the required workforce to produce the same amount. This can lead to a larger amount of unemployed and these may eventually stop looking for work and this will decrease the workforce. However this can have the reverse effect with new technology coming in that creates more jobs this will make jobs easier to get and so increase the workforce. There is another way that technology can affect the Australian workforce and that is through trading with a well endowed with labour country. This according to the Samuelson-Stolper argument will expand our capital intensive industries but decrease our labour intensive industries so our workforce will decrease but become more skilled. This however works the opposite way as well as if we trade with a more capital endowed country then our labor intensive industries will expand but our capital intensive industries will contract. This will cause our workforce to increase.

b) Casualization of labour
Casualization of labour causes the Australian workforce to increase disproportionally. However if does not cause the workforce to increase if the workforce is viewed as fulltime equivalent. It also means the workforce can expand and contract far easier than a workforce made up of fulltime equivalent. This is because there are laws in Australia that make it harder to fire full time employees as casual workers can be made redundant easily.

c) Inequities of income
Inequities of income can affect the regional workforce because it can pull the workforce away from a region to a more lucrative area. This can be shown by the average income for the regions as the higher the average income the more higher income jobs that are available in the area. This can be shown by comparing the average income for Bathurst (39 017 as of 2009) to the average income of the inner Sydney (53 752). This inequality of income will draw the workforce to inner Sydney as they are likely to be paid higher as peoples incomes are higher on average.

d) Centralized vs. decentralized labour market

A centralized labour market means that there is less chance of great changes in the Australian workforce however it also means that there is less incentive for people to become more skilled as they get the same amount of income if they are not skilled. It also stops industries from expanding and so increasing the workforce as normally there are so many regulations. However a centralized economy stops the exploitation of labourers for example if an economy is decentralized then there is no minimum wage so a worker may be exploited for the labour. A decentralized labour market means that industries can grow easily without regulations so the workforce can increase exponentially. However because there are no regulations it can also decrease rapidly meaning the nations workforce is more open to fluctuations.

e) Contemporary issues
A contemporary issue such as globalization affects the workforce in the fact that it means that labor intensive industries production facilities are located overseas in countries that are labor endowed and have no minimum wage. This also means that the capital intensive industries and the headquarters of labor intensive industries are located in Australia. This decreases the size of our workforce as we only have a large demand for skilled workers. Because of this our manufacturing industry is decreasing as companies are going overseas to decrease the costs to produce each unit. This means our workforce decreases because we are losing one of our labour intensive industries. Another contemporary issue that has affected our workforce is the recent recession which contracted our workforce as there was less available jobs so people stopped looking for work. Another contemporary issue that is affecting the workforce is the laws that have been put into place by the current labor government. These laws make it harder to fire a full time employee or a casual who has been working for over 2 years. This means that the workforce cannot fluctuate as much unless the casualization of labour increases.

f) Which socio-economic groups have higher levels of unemployment than the national average? Why
The recent migrants (21%), the youth (21.6%) and aboriginals and Torres Straight islanders (18%) have a higher than average unemployment rate. For the migrants it is because they do not have good English speaking skills, are discriminated against or have a too different culture. The reason why the youth are so high is because they are unskilled with little to no qualifications. The aboriginals and Torres straight islanders have a high

unemployment rate because they are often uneducated, in remote areas, have cultural differences and are discriminated against.

Bibliography http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/mf/6202.0?ope ndocument#from-banner=LN http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/ABSNavigation/prenav/To picList?prenavtabname=Topic%20List&collection=Census& period=2006&breadcrumb=T&&navmapdisplayed=true&jav ascript=true&textversion=false& Australian Macroeconomics third edition, editors Greg Walker, Tom Murphy and Lan Perry http://www.deewr.gov.au/Employment/Pages/default.aspx http://www.deewr.gov.au/Employment/LMI/Documents/AR LM_Dec2010.pdf http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/PrimaryMainFeatur es/6287.0?OpenDocument International economies by T.A.Murphy http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@nrp.nsf/Latestprod ucts/LGA10470Economy120052009?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=LGA104 70&issue=2005-2009 Our Economy by E.J.Tuffley