Teenagers in the Labour Market: 1983-1988

Abstract

Analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics data for the period 1983 - 1988 confirms the belief that there has been a marked improvement in the labour market and raises the following question: has the employment growth been experienced evenly throughout the economy or have certain groups benefited relatively more than other groups? The focus of the present paper is on teenagers and a statistical picture of the position of young people relative to the labour market is presented. Despite the general improvement which has resulted in the number of people in employment growing by more than one million, the evidence indicates that teenagers have fared very badly; full-time employment among teenagers is stagnant, and the growth in part-time employment is primarily experienced by secondary school students who are working a few hours per week.