Casuals - now that the goalposts are shifted by ratty on uppers:


While part-time employment encompasses a range of actual hours worked, part-time employees work an average of 17 hours per week. More than half of Australia's part-time workers are casually employed, compared with 10 per cent of full-time workers. Casual employment is defined here as employment with no paid holiday or sick leave. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly given the continued upward trend in the part-time employment share, the share of casual employees in the workforce has been relatively stable since the 1990s at around 20 per cent. The share of independent contractors working part time is around 40 per cent. Independent contractors own their own business and are contracted to perform services by a client; they represent close to 10 per cent of employment.

Relative to other age groups, older workers (particularly those aged 55 years and over) have the strongest preference for working part-time hours. It may be that older workers take on a part-time job (and, increasingly, casual arrangements) as a transition between the role they had for most of their working life and retirement. Older workers also cite caring for relatives and illnesses or disabilities as reasons for working part time. In addition, an older worker's decision to work part-time hours can be influenced by access to, and the level of, pensions and superannuation.

Data from the HILDA Survey suggest that, on average, a little less than 20 per cent of part-time workers switch to full-time employment each year. In contrast, less than 10 per cent of full-time workers switch to part-time work on average each year. As previously mentioned, many young people combine part-time work and study, while unemployed workers more commonly transition to part-time (particularly casual) jobs rather than full-time work. This provides some evidence that part-time work can be used as a stepping stone into full-time employment.

https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2017/sep/3.html

See also
Why there's more jobs and fewer applicants than ever before
https://www.savings.com.au/news/more-jobs-than-ever-before

freediver wrote on Jul 18^th, 2022 at 9:36pm:



Not to those who are unemployed

Frank wrote on Jul 19^th, 2022 at 12:43pm:


I love how utterly brain dead you are... It's beautiful

Over the period from 1992 to 2013, male casual employment increased at an annual average rate of 4.0 per cent—twice that of females at 2.0 per cent.

Your claim is a lie from the start

FutureTheLeftWant wrote on Jul 19^th, 2022 at 12:47pm:


So to what rate has casual employment 'exploded' since the 20 % rate in 2017??


Why don't you just tell us, instead of slipping and sliding like a twitching ratty on ice? 

Frank wrote on Jul 19^th, 2022 at 1:58pm:


The workforce stats.  in the last five years are of course very challenging to pin down - we have just emerged from a global pandemic.

But are you creating a red herring with your  casual work narrative? Certainly, consistently higher unemployment compared with 1946 -1974 has been accompanied by increasing precarity of employment since the 80's.   

Casual employment can be voluntary; underemployment, which has been consistently high since the GFC,  is involuntary, by definition.

Chifley was able to create real full employment after 1946, continued by Menzies, as outlined in the OP.

Now many young people are facing mickey mouse gig economy jobs...

freediver wrote on Jul 18^th, 2022 at 9:36pm:

Rubbish.

Firstly, it's a false analogy. It is MUCH easier to issue foreign work visas than it is to bring empty houses in from overseas.

Secondly, state-mandated involuntary unemployment is FAR WORSE than full employment. The burden of involuntary unemployment is NOT shared equally, and anyone trying to get back into the workforce experiences enormous discrimination.

The burden of involuntary unemployment needs to be shared more equitably.

For example, any company layoffs should be by lottery. Anyone who has been out of work for six months or more in the past five years would be excluded from the redundancy lottery. The directors ordering the sackings would all be included in a separate lottery pool and directors are also made redundant in the same proportion as workers, with a minimum of one to be axed.

Anyone drawn in the redundancy lottery is made redundant with no redundancy pay. No exceptions.

Ben Chifley -

"He foreshadowed that taxes would need to be maintained: 'after the war, to save ourselves from inflated costs and prices, and to distribute equitably the additional wealth which full employment brings, we must expect fairly heavy tax rates ... higher than before the war.’ 62 By 1944, however, he was warning 'taxation is so high that it is impracticable to obtain any further contribution from this source."

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281979829_Ben_Chifley_the_true_believer


Edit: "It would not create work for work’s sake, but drive increases in productivity to create meaningful jobs that made a social contribution. Work would be dignified – and socially recognised. The power of big business to use the threat of unemployment to discipline labour (as had taken place in the 1930s) would be curtailed. Labour would be treated as more than a mere commodity.

It was the basis of a new era of prosperity. In the 1950s and 1960s GDP grew annually by 2%, and then 3%, while unemployment remained beneath 3%."

https://www.chifley.org.au/in-depth/the-curtin-government-and-full-employment/

thegreatdivide wrote on Jul 20^th, 2022 at 1:47pm:


And after the war?

Edit:

" In order to meet the needs of the war economy 20,000 soldiers were released from the Australian Army in October 1943. Further reductions took place in August 1944 when another 30,000 soldiers and 15,000 personnel from the Royal Australian Air Force were discharged. In mid-1945 the Government implemented a policy in which service men and women who had completed five years of service, including at least two years outside Australia, could volunteer for discharge."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demobilisation_of_the_Australian_military_after_Wo...