From standard to non-standard employment: Labour force change in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa

Abstract

A critical labour market issue in all developed economies is the growth of non-standard forms of labour such as temporary, part-time, casual work, fixed term contracts, sub-contracting, homeworking, agency labour and so on. This paper provides survey evidence of employers' past, present and intended usage of non-standard forms of labour in three countries: Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Our results indicate that non-standard forms of employment do represent an important feature of the contemporary workplace, to varying degrees, in these three countries. However, our findings also show that standard, full-time, permanent employment still remains the dominant form of employment in all three countries.