From standard to non‐standard employment: Labour force change in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa

A critical labour market issue in all developed economies is the growth of non‐standard forms of labour such as temporary, part‐time, casual work, fixed term contracts, sub‐contracting, homeworking, agency labour and so on. This paper provides survey evidence of employers’ past, present and intended usage of non‐standard forms of labour in three countries: Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Our results indicate that non‐standard forms of employment do represent an important feature of the contemporary workplace, to varying degrees, in these three countries. However, our findings also show that standard, full‐time, permanent employment still remains the dominant form of employment in all three countries.