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Australia's workforce continues to change. There is an increasing diversity of employment arrangements, more flexible working time patterns, and an increase in the extent of part-time hours within Australia. This section looks at working arrangements, specifically employment types, overtime and locations of work, and hours worked. Working arrangements
Graph 6.27 shows that although the proportion of employed persons who were employees with paid leave entitlements was similar for males (59%) and females (57%), more females identified themselves as casual employees (27%) than males (15%). In contrast, the proportion of males working in their own business was higher than for females (24% compared to 13%). Overtime Overtime refers to the work undertaken that is outside, or in addition to, ordinary working hours in an employee's main job, whether paid or unpaid. As seen in table 6.28, almost one-third of all employees (33.0%) worked overtime on a regular basis. Males (39.3%) worked overtime on a regular basis more often than females (25.4%). Females (73.3%) were more likely to have not worked any overtime than males (58.9%).
Table 6.29 shows that full-time employees were much more likely to work overtime on a regular basis than part-time employees (40.8% compared to 12.1%). While males working full-time are more likely to work overtime on a regular basis than females, males and females working part-time show the same incidence of working overtime on a regular basis (12.1%).
Table 6.30 shows that between 1995 and 1997, of those employees who usually work overtime in their main job, the proportion receiving overtime pay decreased from 40.7% to 37.7%, but then increased to 38.4% in 2000. Unpaid overtime remained constant from 1995 to 1997 (around 35%) and then decreased to 33.5% in 2000.
Locations of work Locations of work refers to the different types of places where people work. These include traditional workplaces, such as offices, factories and other business premises; homes, including both own homes and other homes; travelling workers who have no fixed location; and other locations including parks, beaches, streets and forests. Persons employed at home are defined as employed persons who worked all or most hours at home and employees who had an arrangement with their employer to work some hours at home, in their main or second job. In June 2000, there were 8,589,400 employed persons at work during the reference period, of whom 83.9% worked mainly at business premises (table 6.31). Females were more likely than males to work mainly at their own home (8.4% compared to 6.1%) and at business premises (87.4% compared to 81.2%). Males were more likely to travel as their main location of work (6.9% compared to 1.4%).
Table 6.32 shows the main location of work in main job by employment status. Of employees, 89.3% worked mainly at business premises and just 3.4% worked at their own home. In contrast, 40.5% of own account workers worked mainly at business premises and 35.5% worked at their own home. Contributing family workers had the highest proportion working at their own home (50.1%). Own account workers had the highest proportion of travelling workers (9.1%).
Hours of work Hours of work are defined as the number of hours that employed persons have actually worked in all jobs during the reference week, not necessarily the hours paid for. Hours data have a wide range of uses, for example, to calculate productivity, and to monitor working conditions, quality of life and living standards of employed persons. Information on hours of work allows the ABS to classify employed persons as full-time or part-time, and also to identify underemployed persons (in conjunction with measures of those 'wanting to work'). Average weekly hours worked is defined as aggregate hours worked by a group of employed persons during the reference week divided by the number of employed persons in that group. Graph 6.33 shows that the average weekly hours worked by full-time employed persons rose from 39.5 in 1983-84 to 42.5 in 1994-95, an increase of 8%. However, from 1995-96 to 2000-01 the average weekly hours worked by full-time employed persons remained almost unchanged (42.5 to 42.6). In 2001-02 there was a slight fall in the average to 42.3 hours per week for full-time employed persons. As shown in graph 6.34, the average weekly hours worked in full-time employment differed across occupations, although in almost all occupations, males worked between three and five hours longer than females. The greatest difference was in the occupation Managers and administrators where on average males worked 5.3 hours per week longer than females. The smallest difference was in Tradespersons and related workers where on average males worked 1.7 hours per week longer than females. Persons employed as Managers and administrators recorded the highest average weekly hours for full-time employment for both males (51 hours per week) and females (46), followed by Associate professionals (47 and 43). The occupation with the lowest average weekly hours worked was Labourers and related workers (40 hours per week for males and 37 for females). Table 6.35 shows that the average weekly hours worked for males (39.8) was almost 11 hours greater than for females (29.0). This was due partly to males working longer average weekly hours in full-time employment (43.7) than females (39.5), and also because females were more likely than males to work part-time.
Graph 6.36 shows that in May 2002, 37% of employed males worked between 35 and 44 hours per week, and a further 37% worked more than 45 hours per week. In contrast, 14% of employed females worked more than 45 hours per week. Most females worked between 16 and 44 hours per week, with 30% working between 16 and 34 hours, and 31% between 35 and 44 hours. Graph 6.37 shows that, from 1983-84 through to 2001-02, there was a steady increase in the number of hours worked by part-time workers as a percentage of the total number of hours worked. In 1983-84, 8% of all hours worked were in part-time employment; however, in 2001-02 this had risen to 13%. For males, 6% of the total number of hours worked were attributed to part-time employment in 2001-02, whereas for females the proportion was much greater (26%). 6.37 PART-TIME HOURS AS A PROPORTION OF TOTAL HOURS WORKED: Annual average
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