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14th Path to Full Employment/19th National Unemployment Conference - December 4th - 5th, 2013

Major Theme: The Unemployment Aftermath of the Crisis

Please note the venue and date of this conference has changed. The conference will no longer be held in Darwin in July as originally stated.

The 14th Path to Full Employment Conference/19th National Unemployment Conference will be held at the University of Newcastle on Wednesday, December 4th and Thursday,December 5th, 2013.

The major theme will be focused on reconstructing a full employment narrative at a time when fiscal austerity is undermining employment growth.

The global economy is still stuck in the aftermath of the worst economic crisis in 80 years and the legacy has been tens of millions remain unemployed, a large proportion of productive capacity is lying idle, and vast quantities of output and income foregone and lost forever. The downturn is now into its fifth year and large economies such as the Eurozone and Britain are back in recession as fiscal austerity undermines their nascent recoveries.

The political landscape seems divorced from the reality that on-going recession is extremely costly and prolonged unemployment, especially high youth joblessness, has intergenerational effects. Instead of creating jobs, governments are seeking ways to impose undermine the labour markets by imposing fiscal austerity at a time when private spending is still mostly weak.

The Conference will seek to explore the apparent contradictions of the policy stances that are now entrenched and causing the prolonged global unemployment crisis.

While papers in any area of labour market analysis will be of interest, papers will be particularly welcome in the following research and policy areas:

  • Reflections on the global financial crisis? Reform agendas etc.
  • Any research on unemployment - its dimensions, causes, cures.
  • Regional development in remote economies - with a focus on indigenous employment
  • Timor-Leste - regional development opportunities for a resource-rich developing economy
  • The labour market and the intergenerational debate.
  • The policy challenge of emerging skill shortages and underutilisation - how do we design effective solutions to both?
  • The increasing problem of underemployment and marginal workers.
  • Why has work become more precarious? Is it a problem? What are the solutions?
  • What is full employment? How is it defined and measured? How close are we to achieving full employment? What are the challenges that remain?
  • Employment guarantees versus income guarantees - pros and cons.
  • Why do disparities in regional labour markets persist? What is the extent of the problem and its solutions? Analysing spatial patterns of work and housing.
  • Long-term, youth, disabled and indigenous unemployment.
 

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