Victoria’s Economic Bulletin: Duration modelling of education effects and gendered outcomes in the Australian graduate labour market

Rebecca Valenzuela^1,2

¹ _{Revenue Forecasting Team, Economic Division, DTF.}
² _{Author contact details: veb@dtf.vic.gov.au}

_{Acknowledgements: The author would like to thank Omid Mousavi, Michael Woods, Andrew O’Keefe, Helen Ratcliffe, Jeff Borland and attendees at the interagency seminar series for their comments. Also thanks to Edward Jin for his excellent help with the HILDA data extraction.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of DTF.
Suggested Citation: Rebecca Valenzuela (2022) Duration modelling of education effects and gendered outcomes in the Australian graduate labour market. Victoria’s Economic Bulletin, August, vol 6, no 2. DTF.}

Abstract

This study examines and compares the labour market outcomes of tertiary-educated men and women in Australia using duration modelling techniques. It confirms the existence of gaps between men and women in the Australian graduate labour market and identifies a number of likely causes of their persistence over time. Our main findings suggest that after graduation, women take more time than men to find full-time employment and to achieve important benchmarks in the workplace. We find that traditional gender roles in the home continue to prevent women from progressing at the same pace as men and maximising the career benefits of higher education. Expanding education is clearly a step in the right direction for the Government, but the data shows that this alone is not enough to address the persistence of gender gaps. A realignment of gender roles and perceptions in all corners of society – in the home, in schools and in workplaces – is needed to consolidate gains on the education front. In terms of policy, our results imply that education initiatives should be complemented by structural reforms in the labour market to properly address the gender gap and assist families in managing imbalances in particular times of the life cycle.