In Australia, and in other countries, we observe at any one time a wide distribution of hours worked per week. We develop a cost-minimising model to explain employer choices over the number of employees and their hours of work. An important finding is that hours of work and the number of...

We explore a new approach to understanding the evolution of the unemployment rate in Australia. Specifically, we use gross worker flows data to study the consequences of assuming that there is no unique equilibrium rate of unemployment but rather a continuum of stochastic equilibrium rates which...

Changes in standard hours of work, as occurred in the 1970s and 1980s, alter the budget constraint facing employers and their employment decisions. Using quarterly data for the period 1969:1-2004:1, an employment equation for Australia that includes standard hours as well as the usual output,...