A Decade of Australian Economic Growth: Outcomes for the Labour Market

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to consider some of the issues raised by three recently published books: Unemployment: The Tip of the Iceberg edited by Mitchell and Carlson; The Price of Prosperity, edited by Saunders and Taylor; Work Rich, Work Poor edited by Borland, Gregory and Sheehan (referred to here as MC, ST and BGS) analysing recent trends in the Australian Labour Market.For the decade since 1992, Australia has experienced a sustained rate of strong economic growth unprecedented in Australian economic history. This period of continuous strong growth in GDP has been accompanied by low inflation. (We might say that the low inflation has permitted the strong sustained growth because it has meant that the Reserve Bank of Australia has not seen the need over the period to impose the sort of draconian restrictive monetary policy of 1990-1.) The strong growth performance has been in the face of the Asian currency crisis from 1997, a recessed Japanese economy over the decade, slow growth in most of Europe, and some hesitations in the performance of the primary engine of world economic growth, the US economy.