7.4 The Changing Work Activity Requirement of Australian Occupations
7.4.4 Interpreting changes in work activity areas
The analysis of changes to the work activity requirements of full-time and part-time employment provides an indication of what areas of work have been increasing in demand and which have not. Increased demand in male full-time employment has occurred in occupations with work activities that involve coordination, management of projects and work teams, and administration. Other areas of work activity that have increased in demand include interacting with colleagues and persons within and outside the workplace, as well as making decisions and solving problems. For female full-time employment, the demand trends in work activity areas have been the same as for men, but the increases have been one and a half to three times larger. The only area to experience a fall in demand in full-time work was physical work, indicating the decline in importance of manual and physical activities in Australian workplaces.
For part-time employment, women experienced the same demand trends as those seen in full-time employment, with declines in demand in occupations that require physical activities. Part-time employment for men, on the other hand, experienced declines in demand in all areas of work activity with the exception of physical work.
7.5 Conclusion
Our analysis of Australian job types in terms of generalised work activities showed different trends for full-time and part-time employment. In terms of changes to the overall work activity intensity, the aggregate employment-weighted index of work activity intensity increased for men and women in full-time employment, with the increase in the index for women being more than twice as much as that for men. In part-time employment, the index rose for women but declined for men. Changes to the index in full-time work have been driven by employment growth in occupations that require high levels of work activity intensity. The increase in the index for female part- time employment appears to be driven by growth in employment that requires relatively high levels of work activity intensity, as shown in Table 7.9. Conversely, in part-time employment for men, the decline in the index seems to be driven by increases in demand for occupations that require low levels of work activity intensity.
The decile analysis conducted in Section 7.3 also showed different trends for full-time and part-time employment for men and women. For male and female full-time employees, growth generally occurred in the top three deciles, but declined in most other deciles. The strong increase in work activity intensity in the top decile for male full-time employment and the top two deciles in female full-time employment probably indicates a process of increased relative demand for occupations that require high levels of work activity intensity. For example, a large portion of the growth in the top decile for men and the top two deciles for women can be attributed to growth in employment in 20 or so occupations, such as computing professionals, general managers, human resource professionals, registered nurses and program administrators.
Female part-time employment experienced a similar pattern of change in the work activity intensity of occupations as female full-time employment, where the demand for occupations requiring high levels of work activity intensity rose at the top but declined at the bottom of the distribution. Unlike female part-time work, male part-time employment experienced declines in the work activity intensity at the top of the distribution and increases at the bottom. This shows a decline in the demand for part- time occupations requiring high levels of work activity intensity and increases in demand for occupations that require low levels of work activity intensity.
In terms of our analysis of work activity areas, it was found that full-time employment experienced increases in all areas of work activity intensity, with the exception of physical work, which declined for both men and women. This trend was present in female part-time employment, but not for part-time employment for men. This type of employment saw increases in the area of physical work, with declines in all work activity areas. This analysis of changes to the work activity requirements of full-time and part-time jobs provides valuable information about what particular areas of work have been increasing in demand and which have not.
The Skill and Knowledge Composition
of Australian Employment
8.1 Introduction
Chapter 7 examined the occupational requirements of different job types in terms of GWAs. The analysis looked at changes in the composition of employment in Australian occupations for men and women in full-time and part-time employment in terms of generalised worker activities. It showed that the demand for labour increased in occupations that required high levels of worker activity intensity, particularly, in full-time employment for men and women, and for part-time female employees. Conversely, the demand for labour in these job types declined in occupations that required low levels of worker activity intensity. For male part-time employment, the results showed a decline in demand for occupations requiring high levels of GWAs and an increase in demand for occupations requiring low levels of GWAs.
This chapter expands on the analysis conducted in Chapter 7, by looking at the worker requirements of Australian occupations. As described in Chapter 6, the distinction between worker requirements and occupational requirements is that the former are concerned with attributes that are possessed or embodied by the individual, while the latter are concerned with a set of variables describing what each particular job requires. Worker requirements consist of three components: O*NET skill and knowledge indicators, and educational background. In the analysis that follows, the O*NET measures of skill and knowledge are applied to investigate changes to the composition of full-time and part-time employment for men and women by exploring the following questions:
• How have the worker requirements of Australian occupations in terms of knowledge and O*NET skill intensities changed between 1971 and 2001?
• What can be said about the changing knowledge and O*NET skill requirements of Australian occupations?
• Do changes in the skill and knowledge intensity of Australian occupations reflect a pattern of skill-bias in the demand for labour in job types?