SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC OVERVIEW

1
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC OVERVIEW OF WESTERN
AUSTRALIA implications for public sector
education
2
economy

• Rich State
• Growing rapidly
• Expansion of commodity extraction and processing
• New industry sectors developing
• Service industries to outpace other sectors
• Structure of growth impacts on skill demand

3
employment and working-life

• Female paid labour market participation
  increasing
• Male labour market participation down
• Huge increases in part-time casual employment
• More people working long hours (gt50hrs)
• Long hours impacts on health, family,
  relationships

4
youth labour market

• Skill-biased structural change hit youth
  employment
• - technology
• - micro-economic reform
• - trade
• Increased part-time, decrease in full-time
  employment
• Increased retention rates
• Unemployment and underemployment higher for youth
• Duration of unemployment lower for youth
• 1 in 7.5 of youth labour force unemployed
• - (1 in 11.5 all youth)
• 1 in 20 not in full-time education, training or
  LF

5
unemployment, joblessness, disadvantage

• Unemployment lowest in 25 years (lt 5)
• High unemployment among some groups
• - NESB (DCALB)
• - Indigenous Australians
• - mature-aged
• - some specific groups of youth (defined by
  where they live)
• Australia among highest jobless household rates
  in OECD
• - 752,000 children living in households where no
  adult works
• - 2/3 raised in (unemployed) female sole parent
  households
• - govt schools have greatest share of these
  children
• - impact on job knowledge career expectations?

6
unemployment by occupation
7
Socioeconomic status

• Approx 250 households in census districts -
• i.e. neighbourhoods
• These have been ranked for metro by SES
• SES indicator of disadvantage
• - eg low income, low education, high
  unemployment, etc
• 10th decile the bottom 10 of households, 1st
  best
• Have a consistent panel of neighborhoods across 3
  census periods (1991, 1996, 2001)
• If neighbourhood ranked 10 in 1991, same
  throughout (for consistency)

8
2001 socioeconomic distribution of youth
unemployment
9
decade of disadvantage
10
population ageing

• Baby boomers approaching retirement
• Labour force growth rates set to stagnate (i.e.
  zero growth)
• Static (possibly declining) youth cohort
  projected into the future
• The implications felt in school enrolments and
  federal budget forward planning (already)
• implications for the type of goods and services -
  and hence skills that are in demand in the
  economy

11
projected school-age cohort
12
indigenous australians

• Over-represented in every dimension of well-being
• Third world living standards, health status,
  education levels
• Relatively small share of population
• Large share of some education districts (eg
  Kimberly Pilbara)
• Very young population 57 below 24 years in
  2001
• This makes DET the critical government agency
  for indigenous policy in this State it must be
  at the centre of capacity building initiatives
  for communities

13
indigenous australians

• 48 Aboriginal people 1519 years not in formal
  education
• CDEP employment 25 of total employment
  critical pathway
• CDEP detrimental to mainstream education in urban
  areas
• Employment prospects 23 higher in urban areas
  with post-secondary qualification
• No transition from school to mainstream local
  employment
• main transition dependence on welfare and
  CDEP payments

14
indigenous australians

• to circumvent inter-generational welfare
  dependence there needs to be an immediate
  targeted policy and program support for this
  group before they enter the welfare system that
  is, it must start at school.

15
school resourcing

• USO drives up cost of public education
• - majority of indigenous students (location,
  language, performance, community relations,
  retention, health, disadvantage)
• disadvantaged backgrounds affect public outcomes
• Independent schools gt30 metro secondary students
  richest 10 of neighbourhoods
• For every 100 put into public sector, 35 flows
  to non-government sector (irrespective of need)
• Even with no increase in funding levels to the
  government sector, a decrease in enrolments means
  the average cost of schooling increases this
  drives up non-government

16
socioeconomic distribution of students
17
sector share by socioeconomic decile
18
regional enrolments
19
sole parent households
20
Half-million kids brought up by single welfare
mums Emma-Kate Symons, Social affairs
writer September 23, 2004

• the proportion of Australian children growing up
  in jobless households headed by single parents --
  overwhelmingly single mothers -- jumped by 7 per
  cent.
• That meant that a total of 482,100 children, or
  almost two-thirds of children in families where
  no parent works, were being raised by unemployed
  mothers.
• Fifteen per cent of Australian children, or
  753,600 children, were in families where no
  parent worked.
• Only 52 per cent of single parents are employed,
  and of those just over half are in full-time
  work.
• Almost half of couple families with a child aged
  2 or under have both parents in the workforce,
  and 60 per cent of all couple families with
  dependent children have two parents who work.
• Single parents with children earn less than half
  the household income of couples with children --
  a median weekly income of 412, compared with
  1167.
• "Then there is the poverty trap issue. By the
  time you pay your childcare and other costs, the
  return from a low-paid job is very poor."