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The housing security consequences of underemployment

Summary

This project provides a comprehensive population-wide analysis of the consequences of time related under-employment as it relates to different housing tenures and household groups, and whether there is any link with housing stress.

Project Number: 30674
Research Theme: Social_wellbeing
Project Leader: Campbell, Iain
Funding Year: 2011
Research Centre: RMIT

Description

Underemployment is defined as those working less than 35 hours in a given week who would prefer to work more paid hours.  In Australia, underemployment is well above the OECD average (OECD Employment Outlook, 2010).

Underemployment, like unemployment, raises several housing policy concerns about the capacity of households to meet ongoing housing costs during a period of reduced or inadequate income. Small changes to incomes for some households pose a significant threat to housing security and stability.

The research will make use of several quantitative secondary data sources including ABS labour force statistics and the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey.