This paper investigates factors that influence Australians’ self-reported levels of happiness
and life satisfaction with an emphasis on the role of labour market experience. The analysis is
based on data from two surveys. The first, the 1995 Year 9 cohort of the Longitudinal
Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY), tracks a sample of young Australians in each year from
Year 9 secondary school to age 19. The second is Wave 1 of the Household Income and
Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey (HILDA). Ordered probit models are fitted to
individuals’ ratings of how happy they are with their lives as a whole (LSAY) and their
overall life satisfaction (HILDA). There is some evidence of declining levels of happiness
with duration of unemployment. However, the results illustrate the importance the quality of
working life, rather than just having a job, and some evidence on the influence of various job
attributes on wellbeing is presented.