6265.0 - Underemployed Workers, Australia, Sep 1998  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 12/05/1999   
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MEDIA RELEASE

May 12, 1999
Embargoed: 11:30 AM (AEST)
56/99
One in four part-time workers wants more work

Nearly one in four of Australia's part-time workers wanted to work more hours, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

In September 1998, 502,800 persons working part-time wanted to work more hours. These people represented 23% of the almost 2.2 million part-time workers in Australia's labour force. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of part-time workers who wanted to work more reported that they would like to work full-time. Males were more likely to want full-time work (76%) than females (55%).

Forty per cent of all people who worked part-time and wanted to work more hours were males and 60% were females. The proportion of males has increased over time. More than a third (36%) of all part-time workers wanting to work more hours were under 25 years of age compared to 17% of fully employed workers.

Other characteristics of part-time workers who wanted to work more hours were:
  • 39% reported that they usually worked 0-10 hours, 32% worked 11-20 hours, 19% worked 21-29 hours and 10% worked 30 hours and over;
  • 57% had no post-school qualifications; and
  • 8% were lone parents (almost all were females).


On average, those part-time workers looking for or available to work more hours wanted 16.2 extra hours each week. Males wanted to work more extra hours than females (17.9 hours and 15.1 hours respectively).

Details are found in Underemployed Workers, Australia, September 1998 (cat. no. 6265.0) available from ABS Bookshops. A summary of findings from the publication is available from this site.