Employment outcomes in non-metropolitan labour markets: individual and regional labour market factors

Abstract

There has been a growing awareness that the issue of labour market disadvantage is substantially greater than merely considering unemployment and the ability to find a job. There is an increasing literature that points to the advantages of considering a broader concept which accounts for those people who are traditionally unemployed, but also individuals who are under-employed and those who are sub-unemployed or discouraged workers. Taking multi-level survey and census data for Australian non-metropolitan regions this paper applies a broad employability framework to an understanding of labour underutilisation which presents the risk of underutilisation as a function of individual characteristics, personal circumstances and the impact of local labour market characteristics. The analysis finds that the risk of labour underutilisation in non-metropolitan regions is associated with a range of individual characteristics and circumstances together with the characteristics of the local labour market. The findings indicate that policy designed to address issues of labour underutilisation needs to focus on both supply and demand-sides of the labour market in order to be effective.