A Perennial Problem: Employment, Joblessness and Poverty

By Peter Saunders

After briefly reviewing the recent controversy that has surrounded the measurement of poverty trends in Australia, the paper examines the complex empirical links between income poverty, the employment status of individuals and the incidence of joblessness among households.

A major finding is that a full-time job is needed to produce sufficient income to raise people above the poverty line. These results are then supplemented by an analysis that combines evidence of low-income with evidence of hardship or deprivation. The use of direct deprivation or hardship measures to supplement the indirect income-based measures of poverty does not affect the central conclusion that employment can only make substantial in-roads into poverty if it is full-time.

Social Policy Research Centre Discussion Paper no 146