Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-cnmwb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-19T05:22:10.913Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Case for Public Sector Job Creation Schemes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

John Burgess
John Burgess*
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

It is recognised that for efficiency and equity reasons that governments need to implement active labour market programs (LMP). Such programs can help to improve the matching of labour supply and demand, reduce wage inflation pressures generated where labour markets are subject to supply shortages and bottlenecks, assist disadvantaged labour market participants obtain employment, help reduce poverty and income inequalities generated by the persistence of long-term unemployment, and they can raise overall productivity levels and living standards. What is at issue is not the need for LMP, but the type and mix of LMP required in Australia.

The government has embarked upon a substantially supply side orientated LMP aimed at improving the employment prospects of the unemployed. On the demand side this has been augmented by a private sector wage subsidy program (JOBSTART). Such a mix of LMP is inappropriate for addressing the labour market problems associated with a recession. The government should, as a matter of urgency, consider the immediate introduction of a public sector job creation scheme (PSJCS). The advantages of such a program include its potential to directly address the problem of long-term unemployment (LTU), assist disadvantaged communities and provide an effective work experience support for the plethora of supply side LMP. Such a program could be effectively delivered by utilising the existing administrative structures of the CES and local government.

Type
Contemporary Issues
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , December 1992 , pp. 115 - 130
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Division of Commerce and Administration, Griffith University.

References

ACTU and Trade Development Council (1987), Australia Reconstructed, AGPS, Canberra.Google Scholar
Australian Audit Office (1989), Audit Report No 5: JOBSTART, AGPS, Canberra.Google Scholar
Blanchard, O., Summers, L. (1986), “Hysteresis and the European Unemployment Problem”, NBER Macroeconmics Annual, p. 15–77.Google Scholar
Budget Statements 1991/92 (1991), AGPS, Canberra.Google Scholar
Bureau of Labour Market Research (1984), Public Sector Job Creation: Interim Report on the Wage Pause Program, volume 1, AGPS, Canberra.Google Scholar
Burgess, J. (1984), “An Evaluation of the CEP”, Australian Quarterly, 56, 3, p. 239–248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burgess, J. (1990), “European Unemployment in the 1980s”, Economic Analysis and Policy, 20, 2, p. 149–168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Committee of Inquiry into Labour Market Programs (Kirby Report) (1985), Report, AGPS, Canberra.Google Scholar
Carlin, W., Soskice, D. (1990), Macroeconomics and the Wage Bargain, Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Chapman, B. (1990), The Labour Market, in Grenville, S. ed., The Australian Macroeconomy in the 1980s, Reserve Bank of Australia, Sydney.Google Scholar
Chapman, B., Junanker, P., Kapuscinski, C. (1992), Long-term Unemployment: Projections and Policy, Centre for Economic Policy Research, ANU, Canberra.Google Scholar
Dawkins, J., Duncan, P. (1989), Achievements in Employment, Education and Training, AGPS, Canberra.Google Scholar
Department of Employment and Industrial Relations (1984), Community Employment Program: The First Year, AGPS, Canberra.Google Scholar
Department of Employment and Industrial Relations (1985), Community Employment Program: the Balance Sheet, AGPS, Canberra.Google Scholar
Freeman, D. (1990), “Special Employment Programs in Developed and Developing Countries”, International Labour Review, 129, 2, p. 165–184.Google Scholar
Green, R., Mitchell, W., Watts, M. (1992), Expansionary Fiscal Policy, Employment Studies Centre, University of Newcastle.Google Scholar
Gregg, P. (1990), “The Evolution of Special Employment Measures”, National Institute Economic Review, 132, p. 49–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hollister, R., Freeman, D. (1988), “Special Employment Programs in OECD Countries”, International Labour Review, 127, 3, p. 317–334.Google Scholar
Jackman, R., Pissarides, C., Savouri, S. (1990), “Labour Market Policies and Unemployment in the OECD”, Economic Policy, October, p. 450–490.Google Scholar
Jackson, M., Hanby, V. (1982), British Work Creation Programs, Gower, Aldershot.Google Scholar
Layard, R., Nickell, S., Jackman, R. (1991), Unemployment: Macroeconomic Performance and the Labour Market, Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Lewis, P., Ryan, C. (1985), “Wage Subsidies, Their Employment Effects and How to Evaluate Them”, Bureau of Labour Market Research, Working Paper no.51, Canberra.Google Scholar
National Board of Employment, Education and Training (1991), Assistance for Disadvantaged Jobseekers, AGPS, Canberra.Google Scholar
Saunders, P., Matheson, G. (1991), “An Ever Rising Tide? Poverty in Australia in the Eighties”, The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 2, 2, p. 143–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stretton, A., Chapman, B. (1990), An Analysis of Australian Labour Market Programs, Discussion Paper no.247, Centre for Economic Policy Research, ANU, Canberra.Google Scholar
Whitfield, K. (1987), The Australian Labour Market, Harper and Row, Sydney.Google Scholar