NILS Working Papers
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ItemNILS Working Paper no 175. Low skill men’s access to ‘feminine’ care jobs in Australia: An occupational case study approach(National Institute of Labour Studies, 2011)Labour market restructuring and the emergence of the ‘service economy’ have had profound impacts on the nature of work and the gender composition of employment in industrialised countries. Stagnating participation rates for low skilled men suggests that this cohort is struggling to adjust to the demands of the new economy. Centred around detailed case studies of two strategically chosen female dominated occupations, this research uses occupational sex segregation - a concept traditionally used to explain women’s employment outcomes – to understand what supports and what deters low skilled men from obtaining employment in traditionally female care occupations in Australia. The occupations selected for case study were aged care and child care. The case study approach involved 68 interviews with men who might take jobs in these occupations (i.e. unemployed men), employers, male workers and clients. The research finds that there are a number of factors operating on both the supply and demand side of the labour market that affect men’s willingness and ability to gain employment within these ‘feminine’ caring occupations. Gender essentialism was central to many of these processes and the paper highlights the mechanisms by which this operates to limit men's movement into female dominated care occupations. Despite the power of gender essentialism in producing occupational sex segregation, the research also finds that processes on both the supply and demand side reduced or moderated its impact. The paper concludes by discussing the implication these findings have for the ways in which gender segregation is theorised and generated in the workplace.
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ItemNILS Working Paper no 173. How does occupational sex segregation shape low skilled men's employment opportunities? Evidence from the ABS census(National Institute of Labour Studies, 2011)A major feature of the contemporary Australian labour market is the declining participation of prime-age men, in particular those with low education levels. Using Census data for 1996 and 2006, this paper explores how occupational sex segregation – a concept traditionally used to explain female employment outcomes – has shaped low skilled men’s employment opportunities in Australia. The empirical evidence shows that employment for workers with limited levels of educational attainment has expanded most rapidly in occupations that are female-dominated. Men are not increasing their share of employment in these occupations. This evidence supports the argument that sex segregation in employment opportunities has contributed to men’s withdrawal from the labour force. The paper concludes by discussing the relative usefulness of occupational sex segregation as a theoretical framework for understanding low skilled men’s labour market situation.
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ItemNILS Working paper no 181. Modelling house prices across Sydney with estimates for access, property size, public transport, urban density and crime(National Institute of Labour Studies, 2012)This paper examines the structure of house prices across the city, in this case Sydney, as an aid to urban development strategy and in particular to determine the potentially positive effects of public transport and negative effects of residential density on property prices. We model median house prices in 626 suburbs and achieve a high level of explanation. Distances from the CBD and from the coast are dominant factors in explaining house prices in Sydney. Predictably house and lot size are also highly significant factors. On the other hand a high propensity for violent crime significantly reduces property values. Over the whole city distance to rail station is not a statistically significant variable, but in suburb groups that are poorly served by other modes, median house prices fall significantly with increased distances to station. We found a similar but weaker result for access to high frequency buses. Contrary to expectation we found that higher density is marginally associated with higher median prices. However as the density variable is correlated (negatively) with median land area and, to a lesser extent, with distance to CBD, we would be cautious about concluding that density has no negative effect on house prices.
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ItemNILS Working paper no 167. Assisting people marginal to the labour market to gain and maintain employment: a spotlight on South Australia(National Institute of Labour Studies, 2011)Until relatively recently Australia experienced unprecedented levels of economic growth. The number of jobs available was at an all time high and unemployment at a 30 year historical low. It is an unfortunate reality however, that some groups of people did not have the chance to share in this economic prosperity. This article draws from research conducted in South Australia that aimed to understand more fully the reasons why, in the economic boom period, aspirations for employment were not being met. It details the main findings arising from in-depth interviews conducted with 106 people who were currently not participating or underparticipating in paid employment. The article concludes by discussing the implications of these findings for the development of strategies to help such groups to gain employment and remain in employment.
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ItemNILS Working paper no 180. Job anxiety, work-related psychological illness and workplace performance(National Institute of Labour Studies, 2011)This paper uses matched employee-employer data from the British Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS) 2004 to examine the determinants of employee job anxiety and work-related psychological illness. Job anxiety is found to be strongly related to the demands of the job as measured by factors such as occupation, education and hours of work. Average levels of employee job anxiety, in turn, are positively associated with work-related psychological illness among the workforce as reported by managers. The paper goes on to consider the relationship between psychological illness and workplace performance as measured by absence, turnover and labour productivity. Work-related psychological illness is found to be negatively associated with several measures of workplace performance.
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ItemNILS Working paper no 179. Immigration policy and entrepreneurship(National Institute of Labour Studies, 2011)This paper analyses the impact of a change in Australias immigration policy, introduced in the mid-1990s, on migrants probability of becoming entrepreneurs. The policy change consists of stricter entry requirements and restrictions to welfare entitlements. The results indicate that those who entered under more stringent conditions, the second cohort, have a higher probability to become self-employed, than those in the first cohort. We also find significant time and region effects. Contrary to some existing evidence, time spent in Australia positively affects the probability to become self-employed. We discuss intuitions for the results in the paper.