Labour Market Issues in Melbourne s North

City Economy 05 Labour Market Issues in Melbourne’s North Anthony Kent RMIT University Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT This paper presents b...
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City Economy 05

Labour Market Issues in Melbourne’s North Anthony Kent RMIT University Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT This paper presents background research on labour market change in Melbourne’s northern region. The point of departure for the analysis is 2001 Census data. The author uses the City of Whittlesea in Melbourne’s north as a case study. Whittlesea is a fringe urban area with a rapidly expanding population. It will be shown that bald unemployment statistics are only one indication of labour market disadvantage and that, in the case of Whittlesea, we find behind these figures indications that the local population is experiencing, to paraphrase an expression from housing studies, ‘labour market stress’. Although this is a preliminary paper, a key question has emerged which will be addressed: jobs growth and reduction in unemployment have been steady in Whittlesea between 1991 and 2001. In terms of broader indicators of disadvantage, Whittlesea performs comparatively poorly. Why is this so and what does it have to do with the local labour market? INTRODUCTION This paper presents background research on labour market change in Melbourne’s northern region. The point of departure for the analysis is primarily 2001 Census data and the author uses the City of Whittlesea in Melbourne’s north as a case study. Whittlesea is a fringe urban area with a rapidly expanding population. It therefore presents a challenge for labour market planners in a contemporary context of persistent unemployment in particular locations, the growth of the ‘secondary labour market’ (part-time, casual and temporary jobs) and fundamental labour market and welfare reforms shortly to be introduced by the conservative Federal Government. It will be shown that bald unemployment statistics are only one indication of labour market disadvantage and that, in the case of Whittlesea, we find behind these figures indications that the local population is experiencing, to paraphrase an expression from housing studies, ‘labour market stress’. Although this is a preliminary paper, a key question has emerged which will be addressed: jobs growth and reduction in unemployment have been steady in Whittlesea between 1991 and 2001. In terms of broader indicators of disadvantage, Whittlesea performs comparatively poorly. Why is this so and what does it have to do with the local labour market? APPROACH, METHODS AND CONSTRAINTS Of particular interest is labour market disadvantage which will be interpreted as comprising three essential elements: the extent to which access to employment is restricted, the quality of jobs available within labour markets and upon whom labour market disadvantage impacts most heavily. Indeed, a clear link has recently been

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City Economy 05 shown between the first and second components. That is, the higher the status of the job one holds in terms of skill requirements, stability and income is related to the likelihood that a ‘revolving door’ effect in terms of unemployment/employment or what has been termed ‘precarious employment’, is minimised (Weller and Webber, 2001). The question arose as to how to evaluate Whittlesea other than by a time series analysis of its own characteristics. At this preliminary stage of the research it was felt that the first step should be to make comparisons with metropolitan-wide trends and where appropriate other Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Melbourne’s north. This has the advantage of providing a general sense of how Whittlesea’s workers and jobs fit, as it were, into the broader metropolitan economy. Due to limitations of space and time a number of constraints are imposed for this paper which will be revisited on another occasion. The analysis is partly structured by data availability. The bulk of the information used here is derived from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2001 Census supported by more aggregated time series data available for 1991 and 1996. Subsequent research will draw on 2006 Census data, interviews and more specific surveys conducted by the author. Rather than viewing this paper as a history of a labour market, it should be understood as a project to identify trends, which will form the basis for a more comprehensive analysis. The nature of the classifications of industry and occupational groupings are also not beyond reproach. Concerns have been raised that the official figures recording the ‘decline in manufacturing’, for example, ignore the increasingly interrelated relationship between the production process and services which aid that process (Houghton et al., 1999). More fundamentally, it has been suggested the ‘top-down’ approach of inherited classifications tends to objectify ‘real’ people, or obscure the voices of those whose livelihoods depend by definition on their labour market status (Gibson et al., 1996; Peel, 2003). Other key phenomena that impact on labour markets are not examined in detail. These are housing markets, transport mobility and government policy 1 . Defining a local labour market is also problematic. Clearly there is an obvious but difficult to elaborate interrelationship between local jobs, jobs held by locals and the broader regional and metropolitan economy. This paper is primarily concerned with local jobs and local working residents, but inevitably in evaluating these, broader links will be considered. CONTEXT: THE CHANGING GEOGRAPHY OF AUSTRALIAN CITIES Radical changes in the location, working conditions and sectoral composition of the Australian labour force have been underway since the last quarter of the twentieth century and have involved a restructuring of economic management by both corporations operating in Australia and the Australian state as overseer of the economy. What is occurring is a major transition, from the ‘Australian settlement’,

1

For a discussion of these relationships see, for housing markets, Winter and Stone, (1998), O’Connor and Healy (2002), Dodson (2003), Reynolds and Wulff (2005). For transport mobility see Urban Research Program, 2005. For government policy see Birrell et.al., (2005).

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City Economy 05 ‘…an historical accretion of state action assembled since the early 20th century and built around state policies of protectionism, the centralised regulation of labour market conditions and controlled immigration…(with) inherent redistribution mechanisms, for example, towards unionised workers, onto protected sectors and industries…’ (McGuirk and O’Neill, 2003:12-13). to ‘…Australian cities… exposed to forces of economic and political restructuring that are beginning to make for noticeable differences in the established spatial order…a growing centralization of wealth combined with the selective dispersion of poverty to structurally vulnerable suburbs’ (Badcock, 2000: 211). How the ‘spatial order’ has been reconfigured has been examined in detail by Fagan and Webber (1999) and O’Connor et al. (2001). The number of people adversely affected has been greatest in the ‘second wave’ of manufacturing suburbs established on what were fringe locations in the 1970s and are now middle ring suburbs (Fagan, 2000; Randolph and Holloway, 2005). Unemployment in these areas reached well into double figures in the early nineties and has remained well above the metropolitan average ever since (McDonald, 1995; Dodson and Berry 2003). During this period of restructuring, observers of Australian cities also saw an acceleration of a trend apparent since the Second World War. Increasingly, the dormitory character of suburban locations has diminished to the point where the full range of economic activities can now be found there (O’Connor and Healy, 2002). While this has not occurred to the extent of the United States, where what would appear to Australians as Central Activity Districts have emerged in the form of ‘edge cities’, it can be said that Australian cities now comprise a number of overlapping local labour markets or have become ‘polycentric’ (McDonald, 1995; Freestone, 1998). This is reflected not only in the increased level of self-containment (local residents who work locally) over time, but in a tendency for each of these local economies to develop industry specialisations (O’Connor and Healy, 2002). For better or worse, a subtle and sometimes not so subtle polarisation of industries and local population skill profiles within suburban areas seems to be occurring and with it a polarisation of socio-economic conditions (Badcock, 1994; Badcock, 1997; Burke and Hayward 2000; O’Connor and Healy, 2002). It is not the millstone like legacy of the ‘old economy’ middle industrial suburbs that determines this stratification, but the ability of particular regions to connect with ‘…the quaternary or informational sector…substantially linked with economic globalization’s expansion of command and control functions in transnational corporations, and the concomitant growth of producer services complexes around those functions’ (Freestone and Murphy, 1998: 287). These functions have a tendency to agglomerate rather than disperse, ensuring that the spread of benefits they herald is distributed unevenly. The ‘winners’ then are those locations with connections to national and international markets through international airports, high tech precincts, industrial estates with a high component of elaborately transformed manufacturing, high status zones of conspicuous consumption, ports, airports and communications infrastructure (Stimson, 2001). Research in the late 1990s (based on the 1996 Census) established a typology of these areas, and Table 1 provides some pertinent examples as they relate to Melbourne.

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City Economy 05 Table 1. Communities of the post industrial city Community Advantaged global economies

General locations Around the CBD and inner city, old higher status middle suburbs

Egs of suburbs and municipalities Brighton, Camberwell, Kew, Malvern, Brunswick, Moonee Valley, St Kilda, Prahran, Richmond

Advantaged suburban economies

Edges around the first category of areas, or further out towards fringe areas

Heidelberg, Box Hill, Waverley, Nunawading, Ringwood, Knox, Berwick, Cranbourne

Disadvantaged old manufacturing economies

Middle and outer suburbs

Sunshine, Broadmeadows, Maribyrnong, Coburg, Preston, Dandenong

Marginal suburban communities

Outer and fringe suburbs of more affordable housing

Keilor, Melton, Whittlesea, Croydon, Casey, Mornington

Outer disadvantaged communities

Ex urban

Bass Coast

Source: O’Connor et al., (2001) after Baum et al., (1999).

Figures 1 and 2, display examples of ABS mapping of socio-economic indicators from the 2001 Census which reinforce in a very visual sense the typologies described by Baum et al. O’Connor et al., (2001) argue that Australia is ‘a society dividing’ along the fissures displayed in Table 1 and Figures 1 and 2. Symbolic analysts 2 (essentially, a group of well educated information and consultant workers whose job growth is greatest amongst occupations and salaries the highest) and investment in construction are over-represented in the first two categories. The converse is true for disadvantaged old manufacturing economies, where routine production workers 3 are overrepresented and investment is lower. The more benevolent if ambiguous marginal suburban economies are the poor relation of the advantaged suburban economies in terms of investment and the greater number of routine production workers vis a vis symbolic analysts.

2

Reich’s term (1992). Also referred to as ‘new economy’ workers (O’Connor and Healy, 2002) – an acknowledgement that in the global information era, these are the jobs of the future. 3 Or ‘old economy’ workers (O’Connor and Healy, 2002), equally an indication that this group represent the jobs of the past, or at best, a tenuous present. Labour Market Issues Melbourne’s North

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Figure 1. Tertiary education, 2001 Census. Source: ABS, 2001.

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Figure 2. Unemployment rates, 2001 Census. Source: ABS, 2001

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City Economy 05 ON THE FRINGE: RECENT LABOUR MARKET STUDIES ON AUSTRALIAN CITIES Detailed examination of labour markets or more broadly economic conditions in fringe Australian suburbs is not central to the body of knowledge on Australian cities and hence the topic itself is ‘on the fringe’. This is not due to the obscurity of the topic or the quality of the research that has been done. On the contrary, it is paradoxical, given the rapid expansion of the outer suburbs. The explanation is perhaps two fold. First, and quite understandably, it is the older middle ring industrial suburbs that have endured the most disadvantage in recent times (Randolph and Holloway, 2005) although even these it can be argued have not secured the attention they warrant. Second, there has been a tendency for suburbs in general to be painted out of the picture in the ‘discourse of globalisation’ with the attention of policy makers and analysts diverted to the core region as the locale where ‘international connections’ or ‘globalising tendencies’ are seen as more pivotal to economic development, or simply more interesting (Fagan, 1997). Recently regional studies have emerged which have begun to bridge this gap in knowledge. O’Connor and Healy (2002) examined the relationship between housing markets and labour markets across Melbourne. Dodson and Berry (2003, 2004) examined trends in Melbourne’s West and Fagan and others in Sydney’s West (Fagan et al., 2004; Fagan and Dowling, 2005). Study of Melbourne’s northern region specifically is confined to O’Connor’s study of the early 90s (O’Connor, 1993). THE MANY FACES OF WHITTLESEA The first observation about Whittlesea is that it is diverse - in terms of land use, population distribution and as we shall see, the socio-economic status of its residents. Whittlesea is Melbourne’s northern most suburb. 70% of the municipality is in fact non-urban land use and it is only the southern third or so which at present constitutes the built up area. Whittlesea is one of four fringe urban growth areas designated in the state government’s metropolitan strategic plan, and one of five Local Government Areas (LGAs) with industrial land designated in the Victorian Planning Provisions as being of state significance, or in other words, to be protected as such and developed in the future (DSE,2005; CoW, 2005). In the next 25 years green field sites will be developed for residential and employment purposes and the current population of 124,000 is anticipated to grow by 100,000 in the next twenty years. The Western Ring Road is a significant transport route running directly adjacent to the Thomastown industrial area, and continuing west through Hume to the international airport. Across the 1991, 1996 and 2001 Censuses, unemployment in Whittlesea fell steadily while remaining slightly above the metropolitan wide figure. It was never as high as the ‘disadvantaged old manufacturing communities’ of Darebin and Moreland, to its south.

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Figure 3. The Regional Context - Melbourne’s North. Source: DSE, 2002.

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18.00 1991 1996

16.00

2001 14.00 12.00 10.00 % 8.00 6.00 4.00 2.00 0.00 Melbourne as a whole

Whittlesea

Hume

Darebin

Moreland

Figure 4. Unemployment in Melbourne’s North, Census Years. Source: ABS, 2003a.

In terms of jobs growth, Whittlesea, like all western and northern outer councils, saw strong job growth between 1996 and 2001.

Figure 5 Jobs growth by Statistical Local Area, Melbourne, 1996–2001. Source: Dodson, 2003

We can focus more closely on the significance of job growth and loss across the northern region by comparing it with working age (20-64) population growth and loss. As we saw in Table 1, studies of ‘opportunity’ and ‘vulnerability’ based on statistical analysis of 1996 ABS data regard Whittlesea as neither overtly advantaged nor disadvantaged but ‘marginal’. At first glance, this ‘middling’ position would seem to be confirmed by generally encouraging figures: lowering unemployment, high job growth which is almost matching growth in the working age population and as we will see shortly, a manufacturing sector which at least is holding steady as the major employer. Other indicators are more troubling. At each census the ABS also

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10000

Wking age population incr 96-01 Jobs loss/gain 96-01

8000

Nos. of working age

6000

4000

2000

0 Hume

Whittlesea

Moreland

Darebin

-2000

-4000

Figure 6. Growth in Jobs and Working Age Population (20 to 64 y.os.) in Melbourne’s North, 1996 -2001. Source: ABS, 2003b Census of Population and Housing 2001 Census unpublished labour force data

calculates an index of disadvantage - a measurement incorporating indicators such as low income, low educational attainment, high unemployment and the number of lowskilled jobs (ABS, 2003c). According to this measurement, at the 2001 census, of the ten most disadvantaged LGAs in Melbourne, areas, four – Hume (third most disadvantaged), Whittlesea (fourth), Darebin (fifth) and Moreland (sixth) are in Melbourne’s North. That is, Whittlesea was rated as being in a worse position than the ‘old industrial’ suburbs of Darebin and Moreland to its south and with Hume was clearly the most disadvantaged fringe LGA in metropolitan Melbourne. Moreover, Randolph and Holloway (2005) found it was one of only four LGAs where the number of collector districts 4 suffering ‘severe disadvantage’ saw a marked increase between 1996 and 2001. Of course it could be argued that Whittlesea is now catching up from a particularly adverse position, and this explains its failure to date show a more desirable disadvantage index in spite of the other positive ABS figures. But this is not really the case. As we have seen, it never saw the levels of unemployment of Darebin and Moreland, and severe disadvantage increased between 1996 and 2001. The question is then if the number of jobs in Whittlesea continues to grow, and indeed, if its unemployment rate continues to fall, why does it register such disappointing results in regard to disadvantage and what might this have to do with the nature and operation of its labour market? RESEARCH QUESTIONS There are a number of indicators that could be investigated in an attempt to answer this puzzle that go beyond or build on the variables covered in the Index of Disadvantage. It is highly likely that deeper trends are hidden behind bald labour figures provided by the ABS (Mitchell and Carlson, 2000; Barrett, 2005). One hour’s work a week is the minimum threshold for registering someone as employed. Clearly this does not necessarily tell us very much about one’s social-economic position, nor about one’s relationship with the labour market. This leads us to five areas of investigation that we will explore in this paper. First, what is the character of the local labour market and in particular what is its shade in terms of a new/old economy continuum? Second, what is the skill composition of the workforce? Third, what role 4

An ABS measurement of usually 200 to 300 households.

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City Economy 05 does part-time employment play in the labour market profile and what can be said about its contribution to disadvantage? Fourth, what is the significance of those not detected by the unemployment figures at all – those who drop out of the labour market either intermittently or permanently and in doing so lose wage earning capacity? Fifth, do the generally improved jobs growth and unemployment figures for Whittlesea as whole mask stratification within its borders and how might this inequality be explained? THE CHARACTER OF THE LOCAL LABOUR MARKET First we will examine the key characteristics of labour market participation by Whittlesea residents and jobs within Whittlesea through a close examination of 1991, 1996 and 2001 Time Series Census data and the more comprehensive 2001 Community and Working Population Profiles (ABS, 2003a, 2003d, 2003e). The subtext to this part of the discussion is the prominence or otherwise of well paid secure jobs with a future in the global economy – the ‘prime jobs’. Different authors have developed variations on this theme. The prime jobs are those of symbolic analysts (Reich, 1992), the creative classes (Florida, 2002), C21 workers (Brain, 1999) or the new economy (O’Connor and Healy, 2002). While some blurring at the edges may remain, the categories the present study has inherited via the ABS data that most closely fit these descriptions are the occupations of managers/administrators and professionals and the industries of finance and insurance, property and business services and cultural and recreational services. Recent work has confirmed that growth in full time permanent jobs is increasingly concentrated in these sectors (Borland et al., 2001). The other side of the ledger, the antithesis perhaps, are the ‘old economy’ jobs. These are vulnerable due to reductions in tariff and subsidies, a low skill base and new technology 5 . Labour Market Participation By Whittlesea Residents. Over the three census periods manufacturing clearly remained the main employer of Whittlesea residents with 11,000 out of a working population of just under 50,000, or around 23% finding work in this sector in 2001 (Figure 7). There was negligible growth however and given the increase during this period in the working age population of around 7,000 the sector would appear to be in slow but by no means drastic decline. In comparison with metropolitan Melbourne as a whole (where the Census figures show a decline from 17.3% in 1996 to 15.9% in 2001) in 2001 it clearly employed a higher proportion of Whittlesea residents. As can be seen in Figure 8 below, this has remained the case over a ten year period, with the ratio of manufacturing jobs held by Whittlesea residents to those held by Melbourne workers as a whole hovering between 1.4 and 1.5. Other areas where the proportion is above metropolitan wide percentages include construction, transport/storage and retail trade. All recorded increases with retail trade seeing the highest increase in job numbers of all sectors. Deficits were maintained across a wider range of sectors: all the prime job sectors of finance and 5

Classification here is more complex. Most sub-sectors in manufacturing would appear to fit this bill. Having said that, some manufacturing industries are clearly more sophisticated and export-orientated (‘elaborately transformed’) than others. Such sub-categories include printing, publishing, media, and the manufacture of photographic, scientific, electronic, medicinal and pharmaceutical products and equipment (O’Connor and Healy, 2002). .

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14,000 12,000 10,000 1991

8,000

1996

6,000

2001

4,000 2,000 Pers & Other Services

Cultural and Recreational Services

Health &Comm Services

Education

Govt Admin & Defence

Property and Business Services

Finance & Insurance

Comm Services

Transport and Storage

Accomm, Cafes & Restaurants

Retail Trade

Wholesale Trade

Construction

Utilities

Manufacturing

Mining

Ag, Forestry & Fishing

0

Figure 7 Number of Residents Jobs by Industry, 1991-2001. Source: ABS, 2003a.

insurance (which recorded negligible growth in numbers), property and business services and cultural and recreational services as well as accommodation, cafes and restaurants, education and health and community services. Most job losses were in absolute terms were in the area of government administration and defence. 2.00

1991 1996

1.80

2001 1.60 1.40 1.20 1.00 0.80 0.60 0.40 0.20

es ne ss

Se rv ic

ic es an d

B us i

Se rv ic es

O th er S er v

& er s

ro pe rty

P P

tu ra l&

R ec

S er vi ce s C ul

n

C om m

&

E du ca tio H ea lth

A cc R om et m ail ,C Tr af ad es e & R es ta ur an Tr an ts sp or ta nd C St om or m ag un e ic at io n S er Fi vi na ce nc s e an d In su G ra ov nc tA e dm in & D ef en ce

Tr ad e

W ho le sa

le

ct io n C on st ru

iti es U til

M an uf ac t

ur in g

0.00

Figure 8. Ratio of Whittlesea residents jobs to Melbourne SD by industry. Source: ABS, 2003a Over the decade, job growth by occupation type occurred almost across the board, although there has been a quite significant shift in the most prominent occupations. Tradespersons and related workers, although continuing to grow, have been overtaken as the leading occupation of choice by the phenomenal growth of intermediate clerical and sales and service workers 6 , from under 5,000 in 1991 to almost 9,000, or almost 18% of jobs in 2001. This is not the case for the next step on the ‘ladder of opportunity’ for this group, in ‘advanced clerical and service workers’ - the only sector to see a steady decline from around 2,500 to 1,500 jobs. The prime occupation 6

According to the ABS definitions of occupational groupings, intermediate clerical, sales and service workers ‘…perform a range of clerical, sales, and service tasks requiring a limited degree of discretion and judgement’ (McLennan, 1997:421).

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City Economy 05 of professionals saw a strong increase – from around 3,000 in 1991 to 5,000 ten years later. Managers and administrators less so – a slight increase from just below to just above 2,000 jobs over the decade. Occupations most prominent in manufacturing continued to dominate: intermediate clerical, sales and service, tradespersons and related, labourers and related and intermediate production and transport together constituted over half of all residents’ jobs. 10,000 9,000

no. of worker residents

8,000 7,000 6,000

1991

5,000

1996 2001

4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 0 Advanced Clerical and Service Workers

Associate Professionals

Managers and Administrators

Professionals

Elementary Clerical, Sales and Service Workers

Tradespersons and Related Workers

Intermediate Clerical, Sales and Service Workers

Intermediate Production and Transport Workers

Labourers and Related Workers

Figure 9 Number of Residents Jobs by Occupation, 1991-2001. Source: ABS, 2003a 2.00 1.80 1.60 1.40 1.20 1.00 0.80 0.60 0.40

1991

0.20

1996

Elementary Clerical, Sales and Service Workers

Intermediate Production and Transport Workers

Intermediate Clerical, Sales and Service Workers

Advanced Clerical and Service Workers

Tradespersons and Related Workers

Associate Professionals

Professionals

Managers and Administrators

Labourers and Related Workers

2001

0.00

Figure 10. Ratio of Whittlesea residents jobs to Melbourne SD by occupation. Source: ABS Time Series Data, Whittlesea and Melbourne SD Community Profiles

Analysis of how these comparisons between Whittlesea and Melbourne as a whole influence overall income is beyond the scope of the present paper. Total average weekly income figures do show a divergence over the decade between Whittlesea and the whole of Melbourne in terms of individual income but not family income, although Whittlesea has remained below Melbourne (Table 2). Household units (which may include non-family members) are on par with Melbourne as a whole, at least in terms of the rather broad income ranges used by the ABS. Possibly, this suggests that having more than one family member in the workforce is an important strategy for Whittlesea households to raise overall income.

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City Economy 05 Table 2. Comparison of Income of Whittlesea residents and Melbourne SD Medium weekly individual income a Whittlesea Melbourne SD Median weekly family income Whittlesea Melbourne SD Median weekly household income Whittlesea Melbourne SD

1991

1996

2001

$200-$299 $200-$299

$200-$299 $300-$399

$300-$399 $400-$499

$600-$699 $700-$799

$700-$799 $800-$999

$800-$899 $1000-$1199

$600-$699 $600-$699

$700-$799 $700-$799

$800-$999 $800-$999

Source: ABS, 2003a a. Weekly income is the income before tax, superannuation, health insurance, or other deductions are made and includes: family allowance, parenting payment, pensions, unemployment benefits, student allowances, maintenance (child support), superannuation, wages, salary, overtime, dividends, rents received, interest received, business or farm income (less operation expenses) and worker's compensation received.

As can be seen in Figures 8 and 10 above, the ratio per sector of local residents’ jobs to jobs in Melbourne overall has changed very little over ten years. Broadly speaking then, Whittlesea working residents have over time ‘settled in’ to a particular configuration of long established employment and occupation types within the broader metropolitan market, despite the tumultuous economic restructuring, new technology and economic recession that continued into the 1990s and the increase in the resident workforce of 18,830 or 27.4%. This is reminiscent of the ‘sorting process’ described by O’Connor and Healy (2002): those of a particular profile or preferences gravitate (or as they reach working age remain in) areas providing employment and housing opportunities that align with their career profile, income and lifestyle (in Whittlesea’s case, the detached suburban family home). In this sense, the labour market profile of working residents is ‘conservative’. Further evaluation is difficult at this stage: should this comparative stasis be interpreted as stability or inflexibility? One thing is clear: in comparison with the whole of Melbourne, there has been very little movement in the profile of working residents towards new economy jobs and ‘creative classes’ jobs (cultural and recreational services) in relative terms, and with the exception of property and business services, in absolute terms. Indeed, if we look more closely, we find a divergence between Whittlesea and Melbourne SD in regard to these sectors. Figure 11 shows that employment in ‘population driven’ industries in health and community services, education, construction and especially retail trade ran ahead of Melbourne as a whole. Numbers employed in the ‘new economy’ sectors of property/business services and (to a far lesser extent) finance/insurance grew in real terms but fell behind in relative terms. Manufacturing, the mainstay of employment for Whittlesea residents fell behind as an employer.

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5.00 Whittlesea working residents Melbourne SD 4.00

3.00

% 2.00

1.00

Government Admin. & Defence

Personal & other services

Communication Services

Wholesale Trade

Transport & Storage

Accomm. Cafes & Restaurants

Education

Health & Community Services

Construction

Cultural & Recreational Services

Retail Trade

Property & Business Services

Finance & Insurance

-1.00

Manufacturing

0.00

Figure 11. Jobs growth by industry sector 1996-2001 as a proportion all jobs in 1996, Whittlesea working residents and Melbourne SD compared. Source: ABS, 2003a a. Jobs growth per sector 96-01 over total jobs 1996. For example, Whittlesea saw a growth of 1,709 amongst residents working in the retail sector between 1996 and 2001. The total number of jobs held by residents in 1996 was 49,685. Jobs growth is for this sector is therefore 1,709/49,685 = .0343 x 100 = 3.43%. 4.5 Whittlesea working residents 4

Melbourne SD

3.5 3 2.5 2 %

1.5 1 0.5

Intermediate Production & Transport

Labourers & Related

Elementary Clerical, Sales & Service

Intermediate Clerical, Sales & Service

Advanced Clerical & Service

Tradespersons & Related

Associate Professionals

Professionals

-1

Managers & Administrators

0 -0.5

Figure 12. Jobs growth by occupation group 1996-2001 as a proportion all jobs in 1996, Whittlesea working residents and Melbourne SD compared. Source: ABS, 2003a

Figure 12 shows a strong bias in jobs growth amongst Whittlesea residents toward the unskilled professions on the right of the graph and conversely not keeping pace with growth across Melbourne in the skilled managers/administrators and professionals to the left. The rate of growth for tradespersons and associate professional compensates for these deficits in these well paid professions so that the overall trends in the proportion of skilled and unskilled jobs held by residents has remained similar over time (Tables 3 and 4).

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City Economy 05 SKILL COMPOSITION OF THE RESIDENT WORKFORCE There are two points to made in regard to Tables 3 and 4 below. First, if we consider Whittlesea working residents as an entire group, there is clearly a lower skill profile than Melbourne as a whole. Second, amongst Whittlesea working residents, and indeed amongst all Melbourne workers, there has been negligible change in the proportions of high skilled and unskilled workers. Table 3. Skill levels, Melbourne SD, Recent Census Years (%) Occupation

1991

1996

2001

Associate Professionals Managers & Administrators Professionals Advanced Clerical & Service Tradespersons and Related High skilled total Intermediate Clerical, Sales & Service Elementary Clerical, Sales and Service Intermediate Production and Transport Labourers and Related Workers

8.0 8.8 17.8 7.7 14.4 56.6 13.3 11.9 9.2 9.0

11.7 8.1 19.6 4.8 13.0 57.2 16.7 9.3 9.0 7.8

11.7 8.5 21.0 4.0 12.0 57.3 17.2 9.9 8.1 7.5

Low skilled total TOTAL

43.4 100.0

42.8 100.0

42.7 100.0

nos. change 91-01 (%) 71.2 19.3 45.6 36.1 2.5 24.3 59.1 2.1 8.1 3.0 21.1 n.a.

Other measures White collar high skilled White collar low skilled White collar total Blue collar high skilled Blue collar low skilled Blue collar total

42.2 25.2 67.4 14.4 18.2 32.6

44.2 25.9 70.1 13.0 16.9 29.9

45.3 27.1 72.4 12.0 15.6 27.6

31.7 32.2 31.9 2.5 5.6 4.2

Source: ABS, 2003a.

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City Economy 05 Table 4. Skill levels, Whittlesea, Recent Census Years (%)

Occupation

nos. change 91-01 (%)

1991

1996

2001

Associate Professionals Managers and Administrators Professionals Advanced Clerical & Service Tradespersons and Related Workers High skilled total Intermediate Clerical, Sales & Service Elementary Clerical, Sales & Service Intermediate Production & Transport Labourers & Related Low skilled total TOTAL

6.5 4.7 8.7 6.6 17.2 43.8 13.1 12.7 16.4 14.0 56.2

9.3 4.5 9.7 4.0 16.5 44.0 17.0 10.5 15.7 12.7 56.0

9.6 4.6 10.7 3.4 15.6 43.9 18.5 11.8 13.8 11.9 56.1

94.7 29.3 62.0 31.6 19.5 32.6 87.7 22.8 11.5 13.3 32.2

White collar high skilled White collar low skilled White collar total Blue collar high skilled Blue collar low skilled Blue collar total

26.6 25.8 52.4 17.2

27.5 27.6 55.1 16.5

30.4 47.6

28.4 44.9

28.3 30.3 58.6 15.6 25.8 41.4

41.02 55.69 48.25 20 12.33 14.92

Source: ABS, 2003a.

Again we see the ‘stasis’ characteristic of Whittlesea’s labour market noted above, in spite of the shifts within the skilled and unskilled categories we identified in Figure 12. What can we discover about Whittlesea jobs? Table 5. Skill Levels. 2001 Census, Melbourne SD and Whittlesea Jobs (%) Managers & Administrators Professionals Associate Professionals Advanced Clerical & Service Tradespersons & Related High skilled Intermediate Clerical, Sales & Service Elementary Clerical, Sales & Service Intermediate Production and Transport Workers Labourers and Related Workers Low skilled total TOTAL

7.3 16.3 9.0 3.0 14.8 50.4 14.3 10.6 13.2 10.6 48.6 100.0

Melbourne SD 8.3 20.6 11.4 3.9 11.8 56.0 16.9 9.7 7.9 7.4 42.6 100.0

Other measures White collar, high skilled White collar, low skilled White collar total Blue collar, high skilled Blue collar, low skilled Blue collar total

35.5 24.8 60.4 14.8 23.8 38.6

44.3 26.5 70.9 11.8 15.3 27.0

Whittlesea

Source: ABS, 2003d, 2001f

Although the data in this case does not allow us to identify trends over time, it is clear that in 2001 Whittlesea jobs provided a lower skill profile than Melbourne as a whole – but this discrepancy is not a as marked as that between Melbourne SD and Labour Market Issues Melbourne’s North

CITY ECONOMY 05-17

City Economy 05 Whittlesea working residents. The explanation for this lies mainly in the fact that managers/administrators and professionals are the only classifications where the number of jobs in Whittlesea match the number of jobs held by residents (Figure 14) – figures made all the more significant when we recall that only about 25% of Whittlesea working residents work in Whittlesea. Comparison of qualifications supports the data on the skill levels of the local workforce. Note that although the rate of increase in the number of tertiary educated residents has outstripped the rate of increase for metropolitan Melbourne (and the numbers for postgraduate qualifications remains very small, growing from 180 in 1991 to 463 in 2001), the gap in the proportions of the population with this level of education has widened. The proportion of residents with no qualifications has certainly decreased but less than for Melbourne SD. Table 6. Qualifications for Persons Aged 15 years and over 1991-2001, Whittlesea and Melbourne SD Melbourne SD Qualification Post Graduate degree All tertiary qualifications Advanced Dip. & Certs. No qualifications a Not stated b Total

1991 1.1 9.3 17.1 60.3 12.2 100.0

1996 1.4 12.8 17.8 56.6 11.4 100.0

2001 2.1 16.1 19.2 51.1 11.4 100.0

Whittlesea Growth 91-01c 108.5 90.5 87.8 -3.2 3.1 n.a

1991 0.3 3.5 15.1 70.0 11.2 100.0

1996 0.4 5.5 16.7 67.1 10.5 100.0

2001 0.4 6.8 18.6 63.9 10.3 100.0

Growth 91-01 157.2 153.3 56.9 16.2 18.8 n.a

Source: ABS, 2003 a. Includes ‘inadequately described’ b. Includes persons who do not have a qualification and persons who have a qualification out of scope of the Australian Standard Classification of Education c. Growth in absolute numbers

The relationship between local jobs and local residents The interrelationship between the nature of jobs available locally and jobs which locals actually hold is an obvious but by no means straightforward issue. In all fringe LGAs in Melbourne, working residents greatly outnumber local jobs (with the exception of Hume with a local job/local worker ration of 0.89). In Whittlesea’s case the ratio of local jobs to local workers is 0.52. Looked at another way, the proportion of Whittlesea working residents who work in Whittlesea is 28%. Self-containment for other outer LGAs is Casey (25.6%), Wyndham (35.2%), Cardinia (37.9%) and Hume (36.1%) (ABS, 2003b). Unfortunately we do not have journey to work data by occupation and industry. We do know that most of the three quarters of residents with jobs outside the municipality gravitate towards the ‘old industrial’ area of Darebin to the south, (12.7%), the City of Melbourne (12.6%), and the manufacturing stronghold of Hume (10.2%) (City of Whittlesea, 2005).

Labour Market Issues Melbourne’s North

CITY ECONOMY 05-18

City Economy 05 No. jobs in Whittlesea

14,000 12,000

No. of jobs held by residents

10,000 8,000 6,000 4,000 2,000

atio n Ed uc

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Figure 13. Industries - comparing jobs of Whittlesea residents with Whittlesea jobs, 2001 Census Source: ABS Expanded Community Profile and Working Population Profile, Melbourne SD and Whittlesea

In Figure 13, manufacturing and health and community services stand out as the industries with large numbers of workers that are most self-contained. Indeed, self containment within the main manufacturing sub groups is high: 73% for food and beverages, 75% for the textiles group, 91% for the petroleum group and 41% for machinery and equipment (ABS, 2003g). But the new economy sectors of finance, insurance, property and business services have the lowest levels of self-containment. Combined with the data in Figures 7 and 8 this indicates that new economy links are weak, both in terms of the local labour pool and local jobs. As a disproportionate number of these jobs are located in inner Melbourne (O’Connor and Healy, 2002), this in all probability is where these Whittlesea residents commute. The only industry where there is a clear deficit in the labour supply of working residents is education. No. jobs in Whittlesea 8000 No. of jobs held by residents

7000

6000

5000

4000

3000

2000

1000

0 Advanced Clerical and service

Elementary Clerical, sales and service

Tradespersons

Intermediate Clerical, sales and service

Intermediate Production and transport

Labourers

Associate professionals

Professionals

Managers and adm inistrators

Figure 14. Occupations - comparing jobs of Whittlesea residents with Whittlesea jobs, 2001 Census. Source: ABS, 2003 Expanded Community Profile and Working Population Profile, Melbourne SD and Whittlesea

For occupations, there are clear surpluses in local labour supply with the notable exceptions of the two most well paid and secure sectors – professionals (which includes teachers) and managers and administrators. As we saw in Figure 9, the rate of increase in the number of professionals, from around 3,000 to 5,000 between 1991 and 2001, suggests the gap is closing over time. The growth rate for managers and administrators has been modest.

Labour Market Issues Melbourne’s North

CITY ECONOMY 05-19

City Economy 05 PART-TIME WORK IN WHITTLESEA: GROWTH TRENDS IN DIFFERENT INDUSTRIES AND OCCUPATIONS Part-time and casual work has increased dramatically in Australia recently, and the implications of this trend have been discussed widely amongst academic as well as media commentators (Campbell et al., 2005). We do not have data on casual employment at the LGA level. As 70% of part-time work in Australia is casual, much of what we have to say about part-time work probably applies to casual work as well. We have seen how job growth for Whittlesea residents, has, at a sectoral level, diverged from that of Melbourne as a whole and is becoming more ‘population driven’ (Figure 11 and 12). The question is then to what extent does this divergence influence the rate of part-time work? Table 7. Hours Worked and Jobs Growth, Selected Sectors, Whittlesea Working Residents ____________________________________________________________________

Industries a Cultural & recreational services Accommodation, cafes, restaurants Property & bus. services Construction Retail trade Education Health & community services Personal and other services Transport and Storage Govt. admin & defence Finance & insurance Wholesale trade Manufacturing Communication services Occupations Elementary clerical, sales & service Professionals Intermediate clerical, sales & service Associate professionals Managers & Administrators Tradespersons & related Labourers & Related Advanced clerical & service Intermediate production & transport

PartTime b

Standard Hrs c

Jobs growth 19962001

44 48 28 15 45 36 44 26 18 36 28 16 11 17

39 29 43 51 31 29 39 44 38 56 43 31 60 38

50 49 33 31 30 27 20 19 9 7 6 5 >0.01 -0.05

848 1,648 4,404 3,596 7,999 2,140 1,803 1,580 2,271 1,128 1,930 2,731 11,210 1,087

60 23 23 16 23 12 33 38 15

25 45 35 42 45 56 49 45 53

28 25 24 18 16 7 7 2 >1

5,521 5,067 8,744 4,544 2,212 7,216 3,125 1,604 6,457

Total no. of jobs d

______________________________________________________________________________ Source: ABS, 2003a, 2003g. a. Primary industries and utilities excluded due to very low nos. b. 1 to 34 hrs per week c. 35 to 40 hrs per week d. Excludes small no. of ‘not stated’ and ‘inadequately described’ responses

We are not concerned with hours worked in excess of standard hours, as this opens up a new field of enquiry beyond the scope of the present paper (see Healy, 2000 and Burbridge and Sheehan, 2000 for trends and implications). From Table 7, a general observation can be made: as we move up the ‘job growth ladder’, the more likely are Labour Market Issues Melbourne’s North

CITY ECONOMY 05-20

City Economy 05 we to find a large proportion of part-time jobs. The inverse is also generally apparent: those jobs with the lowest rates of part-time work also have the lowest rates of growth (and the highest proportion of standard hours jobs). One sector which runs against the trend is advanced clerical and service. Although a high number (38%) of jobs in this sector were part-time, jobs growth has been minimal. This is the only skilled sector to display both a high rate of part-time work and low rates of growth. In other words, the main source of high skilled part-time work is in decline. While space denies us much discussion of part-time jobs within Whittlesea, it can be confirmed that the parttime/full-time mix is generally similar across sectors (ABS, 2003d). It is difficult to draw firm conclusions on whether the character of job growth amongst residents is leading to a disproportionate level of part-time employment relative to the whole of Melbourne. The trends in job growth suggest a propensity for part-time work is developing, and this is backed by what trend data the ABS makes available. In Figure 7 we noted most job growth in the ‘population-driven’ sectors of retail trade, health and community services, education and construction. All bar construction are in the top five in terms of proportions of part-time work. While these rankings are very similar for Melbourne as a whole, growth in these sectors is still outpacing Melbourne. A similar picture emerges in regard to occupations. When we turn to the aggregated trend data, we find that from a situation in 1991 where 21.9% of residents worked part-time compared with a metropolitan-wide figure of 25.4%, by 2001 the gap had closed so that the figures were 28.9% and 31.1% respectively. The proportion of part-time work amongst the ‘new economy’ professions is lower in Whittlesea. As full-time permanent job growth Australia-wide is concentrated in skilled white collar professions, this implies that part-time work in these sectors is more likely to be by choice than necessity and therefore, Whittlesea residents may be facing limited choice in regard to the hours they work. A further point is that tradespersons, production and transport and labourers occupations also have a higher proportion of part-time work than the whole of Melbourne. To generalise, these are more likely to be male-dominated occupations. To generalise further, we would not expect such a demographic group, in such occupations, to embrace part-time work ‘voluntarily’. At one level, part-time work only represents labour market disadvantage for the individual worker if such workers prefer to work full-time. In other words, part-time work may indeed be quite advantageous if it accords with personal requirements. It is important then to consider the extent to which this is the case in Whittlesea if we are to evaluate the part-time labour market in terms of disadvantage. There are several possible explanations for any increase in part-time (and casual) work (Borland et al., 2001; Campbell et al., 2005). Some of these reflect in large measure ‘worker choice’: demographically driven preferences (mothers caring for children, grown up offspring caring for elderly parents) and education needs (an increasing number of tertiary students). It is reasonable to argue then that the three most relevant demographic groups that create the demand for part-time work are women in their thirties who might be caring for dependent children and mid to late year secondary and tertiary students. Conversely, the group least likely to seek part-time work may be men aged 40-54. Table 8 shows the status of these groups in regards to actual part-time work, preferences for parttime work and unemployment.

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City Economy 05 Table 8. Key Demographic Groups and Part-time Work, Whittlesea and Melbourne SD, 2001

Age group

% working parttime Whittlesea Melb.

Working women 15+ Working women 30-39 Working persons 15-24 Working men 4054

% unemployed Whittlesea Melb.

% unemp. looking for p/time work Whittlesea Melb.

44.9

45.1

8.1

7.0

41.5

45.9

48.7

45.0

7.4

6.1

47.0

44.0

41.6

48.7

14.3

15.3

35.7

45.4

12.5

12.0

5.9

5.6

8.1

9.9

Source: ABS, 2003b.

The data in Table 8 shows little variation between Melbourne SD and Whittlesea, however two exceptions are worthy of comment. First, there is comparatively less interest and involvement by the 15-24 age group in part-time work, although why this may be is unclear. Second, while the proportion of working men aged 40-54 working part-time is slightly higher than Melbourne-wide, it is clearly lower for those seeking it. We must be wary in generalising, but this hints that relative to Melbourne as a whole, this group of Whittlesea residents are comparatively more likely to find themselves in part-time work when they don’t really want it. THE LABOUR MARKET - DROPPING OUT OR STAYING IN? HOW WHITTLESEA COMPARES Table 9 reveals that Whittlesea has fared worse than Melbourne SD in terms of labour market participation amongst the working age population. The gap has widened considerably between the 1991 and 1996 Census, in spite of the decline in unemployment, which was similar in the rate of decline for Melbourne SD (Figure 4). To explore this trend further, figures for males between the ages of 40 and 54 specifically were examined. This was the traditional bread winner cohort during the ‘long boom’ of the third quarter of the twentieth century (Fagan et al., 2004). At the very least this age group still represents the key years for potential earning capacity and expenditure for males. The Whittlesea group, as a proportion of all working age persons, is greater by a factor of four and half in comparison with the Melbourne-wide figure, which at the 2001 Census represented 1,533 persons. One explanation is that significant numbers of men who are now in this age group were retrenched in the early 90s (at the 1991 Census, unemployment reached 13%) and were not looking for work when the 2001 Census was taken. This may explain the numbers but not the discrepancy, as this group saw high unemployment all over Melbourne in this period.

Labour Market Issues Melbourne’s North

CITY ECONOMY 05-22

City Economy 05 Table 9. Labour Market Participation, Whittlesea compared with Melbourne SD, 20-64 year age group 1991

1996

2001

Whittlesea % of working age population out of the workforce

22.5

26.8

27.6

Melbourne CD % of working age population out of the workforce

22.0

23.6

23.1

Whittlesea % of men 40-54 yo out of workforce over total working age population.

4.0

7.9

8.2

Melbourne SD % of men 40-54 yo out of workforce over total working age population.

0.9

1.2

1.8

Source: ABS 2003a.

STRATIFICATION WITHIN WHITTLESEA Fagan et al., (2004), Dodson (2003) and Dodson and Berry (2003) found pockets of high unemployment persisted within LGAs recording strong employment growth. Dodson and Berry’s study of Melbourne’s west also focussed on the impact on unemployment of master planned housing estates (in particular Caroline Springs), the Western Ring Road and investment in industrial development. Not only did they find that these developments did not decrease local employment relative to the general decline in unemployment across metropolitan Melbourne, but polarisation in unemployment levels had developed between the estates (low employment) and adjacent areas (high employment). Given these recent findings, it would be useful to examine Whittlesea in light of the fact that master planned housing estates, a freeway connecting the Hume Highway and Western Ring Road and two new industrial and high technology estates are either already being built or are planned for construction in the near future (DSE, 2003). The following maps were compiled from 2001 Census data at the collector district level. There is any number of socio-economic factors that could be examined, but for this preliminary paper, skilled trades and migrants were chosen as both are particularly prominent sub-groups in Whittlesea, with the latter group traditionally finding a strong source of employment in manufacturing (Fagan and Webber, 1999). Data was only available for Whittlesea’s established southern suburbs. Figure 15 is revealing in a number of respects. It shows a polarisation of levels of unemployment between the housing estate suburb of Mill Park to the north-east (built in the 1970s) and the older residential area to the south west adjacent to the Thomastown industrial estate and the Western Ring Road (built in the 1950s and 1960s). In other words, unemployment is highest directly adjacent to where lowskilled employment is also highest. The observations of Fagan et al. (2004) and more specifically Dodson and Berry (2003) on Melbourne’s west would seem to apply again here. Whether it is the case that these jobs are taken by outsiders is debateable. Although Whittlesea as a whole has a self-containment rate of around a quarter, in 2001, the ABS Statistical Local Area (SLA) of Whittlesea South which covers established suburbs shown here represents at 41%, the fifth highest level of selfcontainment of all SLAs in Melbourne. 10,161 out of the 24,551 workers in Whittlesea South also live there. Furthermore, between 1996 and 2001 it had fifth

Labour Market Issues Melbourne’s North

CITY ECONOMY 05-23

City Economy 05 highest increase in the number of jobs with 4,838 more people finding work in this SLA (ABS, 2003c).

Figure 15. Established Suburbs In Whittlesea, Rates Of Unemployment, 2001. Source: ABS CDATA 2001

Figure 16. Whittlesea Migrants with Poor Proficiency in English, 2001. Source: ABS CDATA 2001

Labour Market Issues Melbourne’s North

CITY ECONOMY 05-24

City Economy 05

Figure 17. Whittlesea Residents with Vocational Qualifications, 2001. Source: ABS CDATA 2001

Figures 15 to 17 shows concentrated spatial correlations between high unemployment, low proficiency in English and low levels of vocational qualifications located in the Thomastown area with the opposite effect apparent in the Mill Park estate area. In more general terms, this suggests the relationship between housing markets and labour markets is powerful indeed. As correlations only, all these indicators require further interrogation, and it will be interesting to see what trends are apparent by the time of the 2006 Census. CONCLUSION This paper began by identifying a contradiction regarding the City of Whittlesea. On the one hand ABS data showed job growth, declining unemployment and a steady level of manufacturing employment during the 1991, 1996 and 2001 Censuses. But on the other hand it showed that by 2001, Whittlesea had a poor ranking in terms of disadvantage as defined by the ABS Index of Disadvantage. Indeed between 1996 and 2001 the number of collector districts enduring severe disadvantaged had seen one of the largest increases in Melbourne (Randolph and Holloway, 2005). The author then examined labour market trends that might advance our understanding of this contradiction by comparing trends in Whittlesea with Melbourne overall in an attempt to draw out local characteristics. First, the configuration of employment patterns amongst Whittlesea residents was examined and showed a trend towards ‘population driven’ sectors, in particular retail trade. At a closer level of examination, it also showed a trend away from

Labour Market Issues Melbourne’s North

CITY ECONOMY 05-25

City Economy 05 manufacturing employment. Growth in new economy jobs had certainly occurred, but as a proportion of all jobs in Whittlesea, this lagged behind growth across Melbourne. These findings gained some support through examination of aggregated journey to work data which showed self-containment highest in manufacturing and health and community services and lowest in finance and the other new economy sectors. There were also signs that outside of the currently healthy position of skilled trades, options that traditionally offered a step up on the ‘ladder of opportunity’ for working class people were drying up. There are two pieces of evidence for this claim. The only industry where jobs in Whittlesea are greater than the jobs of Whittlesea residents is education and the only occupation group to show a decline in absolute numbers is advanced clerical, sales and service. The particular significance of this decline is the very dramatic surge in the classification below it on the career step ladder – intermediary clerical, sales and service. Second, skills levels were shown to be markedly lower in Whittlesea. There was marked job growth in absolute and relative terms in unskilled sectors common in retail trade and manufacturing and absolute growth but a decline relative to the whole of Melbourne in the highest paid skilled professions. Overall, however, these shifts were compensated for by absolute and relative growth in associated professionals and tradespersons and related categories so that over the ten year period, the proportion of skilled to unskilled jobs, in aggregated terms, had hardly changed. Third, examination of trends in part-time work showed that in general, employment in those industries and sectors with the greatest jobs growth were also those with the highest rate of part-time work, with the inverse true for sectors of low job growth. This is a similar pattern to the whole of Melbourne, but the growth in these sectors has been stronger in Whittlesea. Moreover, the proportion of part-time work in the ‘new economy’ professions is lower, implying that an avenue for ‘voluntary’ part-time work, in professions where full time job growth is strongest is restricted. The overall trend is that over the ten year period, Melbourne has caught up with Whittlesea in its proportion of part-time work. Fourth, labour market participation was significantly lower for Whittlesea residents and dramatically so for the male 40 to 54 age group. Fifth, concentrated unemployment was found at the collector district level within a broader area of high overall job numbers and job growth. High unemployment, low proficiency in English and lack of vocational training were correlated within the older residential area of Thomastown directly adjacent to the Western Ring Road and the major industrial zone. The opposite effect was apparent in the master planned estates of Mill Park. In light of this, it is useful to consider two interpretations of how labour markets operate (Morrison, 2005). One emphasises the significance of local labour markets and the significance therefore of the availability or otherwise of local jobs. This does not imply that local jobs should be exclusively ‘catchment dependent’, serving customers from the local area. On the contrary, it strongly emphasises the need for (local) stakeholders to facilitate the creation of industries that can compete nationally and internationally. This perspective is closely associated with the ideology of neo-liberalism and has assumed normative proportions at the state and federal levels although local government is far less willing to embrace it.

Labour Market Issues Melbourne’s North

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City Economy 05 The second position is essentially that of scholarly analysts and its central logic is straightforward: unemployment persists in locations where jobs and job growth occurs, including growth in low skilled occupations (Maher, 1994; O’Connor and Healy, 2002; Dodson and Berry, 2003; Fagan et al., 2004). Therefore, the provision of local jobs through encouraging local investment is at best a temporary solution to local unemployment and it is at the level of the metropolitan or regional labour market that attention should be directed. Here, the favoured policy is to facilitate the ability to access jobs at the broader geographical scale through: child care, teaching of English as a second language, public transport provision, affordable housing and industry training. These measures require the intervention of government to provide the social and physical infrastructure to make it possible. Unfortunately those influenced by the neo-liberal agenda – who are in government - are at best unenthusiastic about such an approach. The Federal Government, therefore, seeks to do none of these things and instead focuses on making labour cheaper (and its critics use this expression in its most pejorative sense) as a means of reducing unemployment. Assuming this approach is maintained, the rapidly increasing populations of Whittlesea and other fringe suburbs around Australia, without the protection of strong links to the new economy, will be the first to experience any negative impacts.

Labour Market Issues Melbourne’s North

CITY ECONOMY 05-27

City Economy 05

REFERENCES Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (2001). Melbourne: A Social Atlas. – Electronic Publication, Melbourne, Vic. http://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/subscriber.nsf/Lookup/FDC769F10D49F074 CA256CC900833D7D/$File/20302_2001.pdf accessed 10/10/2005. ABS (2002). Yearbook Australia 2002. Manufacturing. Elaborately Transformed Manufactures – Electronic Publication, Canberra, ACT. http://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/[email protected]/Lookup/B6362CCD5E7158FECA256B350 07F93AC#Links accessed 4/11/2005. ABS (2003a). Time Series Profile. Various LGAs - .Electronic Publication. Cat.No. 2003.0. Melbourne, Vic. http://www.abs.gov.au.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/ausstats/abscensus2.nsf/8b22fc4e1401 d709ca256c94000395e1/1d6726600155951cca256cae00178c22!OpenDocument accessed 4/11/05. ABS (2003b). Unpublished journey to work data. Canberra, ACT. ABS (2003c). Socioeconomic Indexes for Areas – Electronic Publication. Cat. No. 2039.0. Canberra, Australian Bureau of Statistics. Canberra, ACT. http://www.abs.gov.au.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/websitedbs/D3110129.NSF/0/8F71FE A5294EB142CA25691C00218965?Open accessed 4/11/2005. ABS (2003d). Working Population Profile. Whittlesea LGA – Electronic Publication. Cat No. 2006.0 Canberra, ACT. http://www.abs.gov.au.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/ausstats/abscensus2.nsf/b4bb8f000538 6a4aca256ce1007e022a/b6b91978a07c5656ca256d39007d18a9!OpenDocument accessed 24/10/2005 ABS (2003e). Basic Community Profile, Whittlesea. Electronic Publication. Cat No. 2001.0. Canberra, ACT. http://www.abs.gov.au.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/ausstats/[email protected]/4079a1bbd2a 04b80ca256b9d00208f92/b33bd6208dee996eca256bc0001453f5!OpenDocument accessed 4/11/05. ABS (2003f).. Working Population Profile, Melbourne SD – Electronic Publication. Catalogue 2006.0. Canberra, ACT. http://www.abs.gov.au.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/ausstats/abscensus2.nsf/b4bb8f000538 6a4aca256ce1007e022a/b6b91978a07c5656ca256d39007d18a9!OpenDocument accessed 4/11/2005. ABS (2003g). Expanded Community Profile, Whittlesea - Electronic Publication. Catalogue 2005.0. Canberra, ACT. http://www.abs.gov.au.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/ausstats/abscensus2.nsf/0301e971e04f 2be2ca256cb60006bf37/8f666f589205cd0bca256d08002215b1!Open Document accessed 4/11/2005.

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City Economy 05 ABS (2003h) Expanded Community Profile, Melbourne – Electronic Publication. Catologue 2005.0. Canberra, ACT. http://www.abs.gov.au.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/ausstats/abscensus2.nsf/0301e971e04f 2be2ca256cb60006bf37/8f666f589205cd0bca256d08002215b1!OpenDocument accessed 4/11/2005. Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) (2005). Chapter 2. Classification titles and codes. ANZSIC Classification titles and codes Division C – Manufacturing – Electronic Publication, Canberra, ACT. http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/0/3a307f67b0d461ddca25697e0018fc9d?Op enDocument accessed 12/11/2005. Australian Institute of Urban Studies and City of Melbourne (AIUS & CoM) (2005). Environmental Indicators for Metropolitan Melbourne Melbourne, Vic. Badcock,B (1994). ‘Stressed out’ communities: ‘Out-of-sight, out-of-mind’? Urban Policy and Research, 12(3): 191-196. Badcock, B. (1997). Polarising tendencies and Australian cities. Australian Geographical Studies 35(3): 243-259. Badcock, B. (2000). The imprint of the post-Fordist transition on Australian cities, in Globalizing Cities: A New Spatial Order? Oxford, Blackwell: 211-227. Barrett, S., Burgess, J. and Campbell, I., (2005). The Australian labour market in 2004. The Journal of Industrial Relations, 47(2): 133-150. Baum, S., Stimson, R., O’Connor, K., Mullins, P., and Davis, R. (1999). Community Opportunity and Vulnerability in Australia’s Cities and Towns: Characteristics, Patterns and Implications, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, QLD. Birrell, R., O'Connor, K., Rapson, V. and Healy, E. (2005). Concentrating Melbourne: The activity centre strategy, in Melbourne 2030: Planning Rhetoric Versus Urban Reality. Monash University ePress, Clayton, Melb. Borland, J., Gregory, R., Sheehan, P. (2001). Inequality and economic change, in . Borland, J., Gregory, R. and Sheehan, P. Work Rich, Work Poor. Inequality and economic change in Australia. Centre for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University, Melbourne, Vic.: 1-20. Brain, P. (1999). The factors and outcomes driving metropolitan development over the next quarter century, Benchmarking Cities ’99. City of Melbourne Research Conference, Melbourne, Vic., 19th and 20th October 1999. Burbridge, A. and Sheehan, P., (2000). The polarisation of families. In Borland, J., Gregory, B. and Sheehan, P. (eds.) Work Rich, Work Poor. Inequality and Economic Change in Australia. Centre for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University Melbourne,: 119-143.

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