Labour Market Dynamics: Cross-country Insights from Panel Data

Abstract

This article uses household-level survey data on income and employment to compare labour market dynamics across a range of advanced economies, including Australia. The analysis focuses on how changes in employment status are distributed within countries and how those distributional patterns vary internationally. There are many similarities across the countries studied. In particular, lower-income households are more likely to have moved into or out of employment but less likely to move region. But there are also differences across countries. For example, adults in the United States are more likely to change their employment status than in other countries examined. Furthermore, the probability of men entering and leaving employment is closer to that for women in Australia than it is in the other countries examined.