Men out of work - why families are falling apartSydney Morning HeraldJuly 23 2005By Adele Horin
Australia's children are victims of the new economy that has turned increasing numbers of men into casual or part-time workers, a leading economist has warned.
Sue Richardson, professor of economics at Flinders University, said the nation's low unemployment rate hid a "disastrous" trend to semi-employment among many men, not seen since the 1930s.
Of the 1.5 million extra jobs created between 1992 and 2004, only 12 per cent were permanent full-time jobs taken by men. Another 24 per cent were described as full-time for men, but were actually contract, labour hire, or casual jobs without conditions such as annual leave or sick pay.
Professor Richardson said increased levels of casual work among men and a culture of long hours at work were big factors in the country's historically low fertility rate, low marriage rate and the rise in sole-parent families. They also undermined the well-being of children. "We need to change course to avoid a lot of despair and misery. The labour market is making it extremely difficult for men and women to choose to become parents."
Professor Richardson, co-editor of a forthcoming book, No Time To Lose: The Well-being of Children, made her warning in a speech to the Australian Social Policy Conference at the University of NSW yesterday.
At the beginning of the 1990s, about half the jobs held by men were permanent full-time positions. The change, she said, was a "disaster; it is not a successful labour market. It's bad for men, and it's bad for children. You can't keep a family on a part-time job."
Because increasing numbers of men lacked the security of full-time permanent jobs, they did not marry, and had no or few children. Those who did marry were prone to separation, partly because of the stress brought on by an insecure labour market. "The labour market has been extremely hostile to men, particularly men who don't have any post-school education," she said.
"Men who can't get a full-time or secure job are not attractive marriage prospects."
The proportion of men with full-time jobs had fallen dramatically since 1976, with single men faring worse than married men. Of men with low education levels, 20 per cent had no job at all.
Trends in work hours were also hostile to family life, Professor Richardson said. Many of the new jobs created required either fewer than 15 hours a week, or more than 50: "You can't be a good parent either in the low-hour or long-hour jobs - you've either got not enough money or not enough time."
Women had snared 60 per cent of the new jobs created since 1992, with 22 per cent of those full-time permanent positions.
"This can work for children if men are providing more of the caring," she said. "But while women have changed a lot, men have changed only a little. And the workplace … has become increasingly hostile to the needs of parents and children."
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