Job Characteristics and the Changing Nature of Work

• Published date: 01 December 2021
• Author: Mark Wooden
• Date: 01 December 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8462.12434

The Australian Economic Review, vol. 54, no. 4, pp. 494–505 DOI: 10.1111/1467-8462.12434

Job Characteristics and the Changing Nature of Work

Mark Wooden*

Abstract

This article provides a brief and selective

review of research studies examining job

characteristics and the changing nature of

work that have used data from the HILDA

Survey. It focuses on research into job

satisfaction (and job quality more broadly),

working time and forms of employment.

1. Introduction

One of the main foci of the Household, Income

and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA)

Survey is work. In the original brief provided by

the Australian Government, the principal work‐

related concerns were with participation and the

incentive to work. The Melbourne Institute‐led

design team, however, took the view that equally

important was the types of jobs being filled, and

thus the initial survey instruments contained

numerous questions about job characteristics,

including, among others, the number of hours

worked, type of employment contract, length of

job tenure, occupation and industry. In addition,

subjective questions were asked about job

satisfaction and (in the self‐completion question-

naire) about the nature of work performed (which

were later augmented in Wave 5 of the survey).

This article provides a brief and selective

review of the research these data have spawned.

It focuses on research into job satisfaction (and

job quality more broadly), working time and

forms of employment, which, apart from wages,

are the work‐related topics that have attracted

most attention from HILDA Survey data users.

Studies focused on wages have been mostly

ignored here given they are being covered in

another contribution to this issue.

2. Job Quality

2.1 The Measurement of Job Quality

A perennial concern is the quality of jobs. The

multi‐dimensional nature of job quality, how-

ever, makes it difficult to measure, perhaps

* Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic and Social

Research, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010,

Australia, email <m.wooden@unimelb.edu.au>.

This paper uses unit record data from release 19 of the

Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia

(HILDA) Survey conducted by the Melbourne Institute:

Applied Economic and Social Research on behalf of the

Australian Government Department of Social Services

(DSS) (doi:10.26193/3QRFMZ). The findings and views

reported in this paper, however, are those of the author

and should not be attributed to the Australian

Government, DSS or the Melbourne Institute.

© 2021 The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research, Faculty of Business

and Economics

Published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd