Labour markets

Econ 1002 Assignment 3 (due Week 4)

 

This assignment has two questions: Q1. Labour markets [1.5marks];

Q2. GDP [1.5marks]

 

Labour markets

 

We want to know whether full-time employment has grown faster or slower than part-time employment since 2000? This is where index numbers are useful.

 

  1. a) Calculate the employment index numbers for all the years 2000 – 2012 for i) full-time employment; ii) part time employment; & iii) total employment.

          

Table 1 Employment in Australia, 2000-12, thousands

Year Full-time employment

000s

Full-time Employment Index Part-time Employment

000s

Part-time Employment Index Total employment

000s

Total Employment Index
2000 6,614.6 100 2,375.1 100 8,989.7 100
2001 6,597.5   2,492.4   9,089.9  
2002 6,648.7   2,622.0   9,270.7  
2003 6,772.7   27.12.2   9,485.0  
2004 6,930.4   2,730.9   9,661.3  
2005 7,148.7   2,849.4   9,998.1  
2006 7,326.9   2,930.2   10,257.1  
2007 7,583.7   2,993.3   10,577.0  
2008 7,782.5   3,093.1   10,875.6  
2009 7,724.3   3,229.5   10,953.7  
2010 7,852.5   3,337.6   11,190.0  
2011 8,014.5   3,376.1   11,390.6  
2012 8,098.3   3,417.1   11,515.4  

 

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Labour Force

 

  1. b )  From the employment index numbers, what has been the trend in part- time employment compared with full-time employment? (50 -100 words)

 

  1. c) What implications do these observations above have for the ‘grey economy’ (i.e. the informal labour market that is ‘cash in hand’ and ‘off the books’)? (50 -100 words)

 

GDP concepts

 

  1. Open the following link from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. It is the summary of Australia’s National Accounts for the December 2015 quarter (1 Oct 2015 – 31 Dec 2015).

http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/[email protected]/Lookup/5206.0Main+Features2Dec%202015?OpenDocument

 

  1. a) What industry sectors were responsible for the increase in GDP over that period? (20 -30 words)

 

  1. b) Look at the section ‘Prices in the National Accounts’. Refer to the table ‘Selected chain prices indexes‘. Note: chain price indexes are a time series of data that measure the impact of price change. What component/s of Aggregate Expenditure (i.e. C, I, G or NX) increased at the fastest rates? (20 -30 words)

 

  1. c) What is the approximate percentage contribution of each component to total GDP in Australia? (You will need to do a google search of a recent period as the ABS link above does not have this information.) (20 -30 words)

 

  1. d) Did the components that provided the greatest positive (or negative) contribution to GDP (from 2. d), grow fastest or slowest in terms of the reported ‘Selected chain prices indexes‘? (20 -30 words)