Unemployment and the Family: The Social Impact of the Restructuring of the Australian Labour Market

Abstract

This report is a revised version of a paper presented originally at the Australian Institute of Political Science Summer School in Canberra, January 1981, devoted to the theme of "The Future of Work". The original paper was entitled "Changing Patterns of Paid and Unpaid Work: the Social Impact". This revision has emphasised changes in paid work, the consolidation of a dual labour market in the post-war period, the restructuring of the labour market in the 1970's and the subsequent creation and maintenance of high levels of unemployment and the concentration of unemployment in certain working class families.