News & Events
Changing workforce a bigger problem than recession
8 July 2009
The current economic downturn is a five year problem compared to the 50-year problem posed by Australia's ageing workforce demographics and changes in workplaces and households.
This is the argument that Professor Barbara Pocock, Director, Centre for Work + Life, University of South Australia, will put forward during her keynote address at the18th National Vocational Education and Training Research Conference today.
Professor Pocock will examine the nature of employment changes in Australia, and the challenges they create for Australia's future.
"Despite the current slowdown, Australia will face labour shortages, especially for skilled workers, before too long. Pressures created by demanding jobs and changing household life affect how people can acquire skill and use it," Pocock observes.
"This recession occurs in circumstances that are very different from the recession of the early 1980s and 1990s. Workers go into this downturn feeling overworked and burned out from picking up the workloads of those who lost their jobs 10 and 20 years ago.
"Changes in the age profile of workers, their turning away from the overwork patterns of previous generations and their interest in having a life, not just a job, poses challenges for both employers and governments of the future.
"The change in the nature of the worker, their demographic profile and the prospect of labour shortages in the not too distant future will mean a rethink as to how employment and training is carried out and undertaken. This is an issue for both high paid and low paid workers and their households."
Professor Barbara Pocock is Director of the Centre for Work + Life at the University of South Australia. She is an economist and has been researching work, employment and industrial relations for over 25 years.
The keynote address, "What's different in this recession? Low-paid workers in times of labour market stress' will be delivered by Professor Pocock at 11:45am AEST today at the University of Ballarat, Mt Helen campus, Caro Convention Centre.
Media enquiries and to interview Professor Pocock:
Jessica Justin, Marketing Officer or Colleen Young, Manager, Marketing Services, NCVER on +61 8 8230 8400
