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The Labour Force Dynamics Of The Marginally Attached

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  • MATTHEW GRAY
  • ALEXANDRA HEATH
  • BOYD HUNTER

Abstract

One of the most important measures of the state of the labour market is the unemployment rate. However, the standard definition of unemployment ignores an important group of people who are not employed but who want to work – the marginally attached workforce. The marginally attached are defined as those who are not employed, want to work but are not actively seeking work and therefore not classified as unemployed. The paper uses longitudinal data from the Survey of Employment and Unemployment Patterns (SEUP) to test whether the marginally attached are behaviourally distinct from the unemployed or those who are not attached to the labour force. We find that the labour force transitions of the marginally attached, on the whole, are between those of the unemployed and the unattached. Another finding is that the length of time over which the labour market dynamics are considered is crucial to our understanding of the labour market dynamics of the marginally attached. An implication of the findings of this paper is that a range of measures of potential labour supply should be considered, and that the measure used should depend on the specific question being asked.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthew Gray & Alexandra Heath & Boyd Hunter, 2005. "The Labour Force Dynamics Of The Marginally Attached," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(1), pages 1-14, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ausecp:v:44:y:2005:i:1:p:1-14
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8454.2005.00245.x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Stephen R. G. Jones & W. Craig Riddell, 2006. "Unemployment and Nonemployment: Heterogeneities in Labor Market States," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 88(2), pages 314-323, May.
    2. Pearce, David, 1987. "Energy conservation in IEA countries : International Energy Agency Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris, 1987, 25 pp, F. francs 195," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 15(6), pages 584-585, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Krusell, Per & Mukoyama, Toshihiko & Rogerson, Richard & Sahin, Aysegül, 2011. "A three state model of worker flows in general equilibrium," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 146(3), pages 1107-1133, May.
    2. Ipek Ilkkaracan & Haluk Levent & Sezgin Polat, 2013. "Exploring different measures of wage flexibility in a developing economy context: the case for Turkey," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(3), pages 297-315, May.
    3. Boyd Hunter & Matthew Gray, 2012. "Indigenous Labour Supply following a Period of Strong Economic Growth," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 15(2), pages 141-159.
    4. Robert Breunig & Joseph Mercante, 2010. "The Accuracy of Predicted Wages of the Non‐Employed and Implications for Policy Simulations from Structural Labour Supply Models," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 86(272), pages 49-70, March.
    5. Toshihiko Mukoyama & Richard Rogerson & Aysegul Sahin & Per Krusell, 2009. "Labor supply in a frictional labor market," 2009 Meeting Papers 54, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    6. Seçil A Kaya Bahçe & Emel Memiş, 2014. "The impact of the economic crisis on joblessness in Turkey," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 25(1), pages 130-153, March.
    7. Scott Baum & William Mitchell, 2010. "Labour Underutilisation and Gender: Unemployment Versus Hidden-Unemployment," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 29(2), pages 233-248, April.
    8. Ayça Akarçay Gürbüz & Sezgin Polat & Mustafa Ulus, 2014. "In Limbo: Exploring Transition to Discouragement," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 26(4), pages 527-551, September.
    9. Jan Gromadzki, 2019. "The Added Worker Effect, Employment Contracts, and the Reasons for the Wife’s Inactivity," IBS Working Papers 02/2019, Instytut Badan Strukturalnych.
    10. Pauline Halchuk, 2006. "Measuring employment outcomes for Indigenous Australians," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 9(2), pages 201-215, June.

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