IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/rba/rbabul/mar2016-01.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Labour Market during and after the Terms of Trade Boom

Author

Listed:
  • Kathryn Davis

    (Reserve Bank of Australia)

  • Martin McCarthy

    (Reserve Bank of Australia)

  • Jonathan Bridges

    (Reserve Bank of Australia)

Abstract

During the terms of trade boom, strong growth in output prices meant that the real cost of labour declined from the average firm’s perspective and demand for labour increased. At the same time, the appreciation of the exchange rate helped to contain the increase in consumption prices, so the purchasing power of employees’ earnings rose and growth in the labour force picked up. Overall, Australian employment grew strongly and the unemployment rate fell. Since 2011/12, the terms of trade have declined substantially. The mining investment boom is coming to an end and the less labour-intensive phase of resource production has begun. While mining-related labour demand has declined, low interest rates and the depreciation of the exchange rate have provided support to labour demand in other sectors. Overall, firms’ output prices and unit labour costs have been little changed since the peak in the terms of trade, though there have been differences between industries. Growth in employee earnings has declined and it is no longer outpacing growth in consumption prices. The lower growth in employee earnings appears to have encouraged firms to retain or employ more workers than would otherwise have been the case. Growth in the labour force has also responded to changes in labour market conditions, and population growth has slowed. This labour market flexibility has helped to smooth the adjustment following the end of the terms of trade boom and limit the increase in the unemployment rate.

Suggested Citation

  • Kathryn Davis & Martin McCarthy & Jonathan Bridges, 2016. "The Labour Market during and after the Terms of Trade Boom," RBA Bulletin (Print copy discontinued), Reserve Bank of Australia, pages 1-10, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:rba:rbabul:mar2016-01
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2016/mar/pdf/bu-0316-1.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Adam Gorajek & Daniel Rees, 2015. "Lower Bulk Commodity Prices and Their Effect on Economic Activity," RBA Bulletin (Print copy discontinued), Reserve Bank of Australia, pages 31-38, September.
    2. Peter Tulip, 2014. "The Effect of the Mining Boom on the Australian Economy," RBA Bulletin (Print copy discontinued), Reserve Bank of Australia, pages 17-22, December.
    3. Michael Plumb & Christopher Kent & James Bishop, 2013. "Implications for the Australian Economy of Strong Growth in Asia," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp2013-03, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    4. Vanessa Rayner & James Bishop, 2013. "Industry Dimensions of the Resource Boom: An Input-Output Analysis," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp2013-02, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dean Hyslop & Amy Rice & Hayden Skilling, 2019. "Understanding labour market developments in New Zealand, 1986-2017," Reserve Bank of New Zealand Discussion Paper Series DP2019/02, Reserve Bank of New Zealand.
    2. Geoff Weir, 2018. "Wage Growth Puzzles and Technology," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp2018-10, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    3. Sean Langcake & Emily Poole, 2017. "The Resources Economy and the Terms of Trade Boom," RBA Bulletin (Print copy discontinued), Reserve Bank of Australia, pages 27-34, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Peter Tulip, 2014. "The Effect of the Mining Boom on the Australian Economy," RBA Bulletin (Print copy discontinued), Reserve Bank of Australia, pages 17-22, December.
    2. Tim Robinson & Tim Atkin & Mark Caputo & Hao Wang, 2017. "Macroeconomic Consequences of Terms of Trade Episodes, Past and Present," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 57(3), pages 291-315, November.
    3. Adam Gorajek & Daniel Rees, 2015. "Lower Bulk Commodity Prices and Their Effect on Economic Activity," RBA Bulletin (Print copy discontinued), Reserve Bank of Australia, pages 31-38, September.
    4. Kenneth Clements & Liang Li, 2017. "Understanding resource investments," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(20), pages 1950-1962, April.
    5. Manalo, Josef & Perera, Dilhan & Rees, Daniel M., 2015. "Exchange rate movements and the Australian economy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 53-62.
    6. Jonathan Hambur & Lynne Cockerell & Christopher Potter & Penelope Smith & Michelle Wright, 2015. "Modelling the Australian Dollar," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp2015-12, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    7. Kenneth W. Clements & Liang Li, 2014. "Valuing Resource Investments," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 14-27, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    8. Mardi Dungey & Renee Fry-McKibbin & Verity Linehan, 2014. "Chinese resource demand and the natural resource supplier," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(2), pages 167-178, January.
    9. Sean Langcake & Emily Poole, 2017. "The Resources Economy and the Terms of Trade Boom," RBA Bulletin (Print copy discontinued), Reserve Bank of Australia, pages 27-34, September.
    10. Knop, Stephen J. & Vespignani, Joaquin L., 2014. "The sectorial impact of commodity price shocks in Australia," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 257-271.
    11. Alexander Ballantyne & Tom Cusbert & Richard Evans & Rochelle Guttmann & Jonathan Hambur & Adam Hamilton & Elizabeth Kendall & Rachael McCririck & Gabriela Nodari & Daniel M. Rees, 2020. "MARTIN Has Its Place: A Macroeconometric Model of the Australian Economy," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 96(314), pages 225-251, September.
    12. Ivanova, Galina, 2014. "The mining industry in Queensland, Australia: Some regional development issues," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 101-114.
    13. repec:ags:aare16:235308 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Kris Ivanovski & Sefa Awaworyi Churchill & Ahmed Salim Nuhu, 2020. "Modelling the Australian J‐Curve: An ARDL Cointegration Approach," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 39(2), pages 167-184, June.
    15. Christopher G Gibbs & Jonathan Hambur & Gabriela Nodari, 2018. "DSGE Reno: Adding a Housing Block to a Small Open Economy Model," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp2018-04, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    16. Alex Robson, 2015. "The Australian Economy and Economic Policy During and After the Mining Boom," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(2), pages 307-316, June.
    17. Hansen, James & Gross, Isaac, 2018. "Commodity price volatility with endogenous natural resources," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 157-180.
    18. Omar H. M. N. Bashar, 2015. "The Trickle‐down Effect of the Mining Boom in Australia: Fact or Myth?," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 91(S1), pages 94-108, June.
    19. Daniel Rees, 2013. "Terms of Trade Shocks and Incomplete Information," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp2013-09, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    20. Mary-Alice Doyle, 2014. "Labour Movements during the Resources Boom," RBA Bulletin (Print copy discontinued), Reserve Bank of Australia, pages 7-16, December.
    21. Mardi Dungey & Marius Matei & Matteo Luciani & David Veredas, 2017. "Surfing through the GFC: Systemic Risk in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 93(300), pages 1-19, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:rba:rbabul:mar2016-01. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Paula Drew (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rbagvau.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.