Part-time employment in Australia: Evidence for globalization?

Part-time employment has expanded across most OECD countries over the past 25years. Over the last two decades the Australian part-time employment share has more than doubled to be around 26 percent of the workforce. This paper examines the growth in part-time employment in Australia and in other OECD economies. In particular we are interested in assessing the extent to which global pressures, as represented by industry restructuring, provide a common explanation for the growing share of part-time employment. Using shift share analysis the results suggest that industrial restructuring effects do explain some of the growth in part-time employment, but more important is the growing intensity of part-time employment across all sectors. This suggests that workforce feminisation, employer strategies and systems of labour regulation also require examination.