ASPECTS OF AUSTRALIAN AND UNITED-STATES LIVING STANDARDS - THE DISAPPOINTING DECADES 1970-1990

One theme documents the parallel US and Australian histones of real wa ges, employment and unemployment since 1950 and notes the break in rel ativities in the mid 1970s which began with a 30 per cent Australian r eal wage increase relative to the US. Since then Australian real wages have remained constant, unemployment increased fourfold and the male full-time employment-population ratio fallen 25 per cent. The other th eme relates to the widening dispersion of male real wages, the large j ob loss from the middle of the earnings distribution and rapid employm ent growth at low earnings.