Dividing the load

摘要

A year into the global financial crisis and unemployment in Australia is only at 5.8 per cent, but an interesting trend has emerged with big companies adjusting workers' hours from lull-time to part-time in order to retain skills for when the economy improves.rnAccording to OECD figures, more than 3 per cent of male full-time workers and 9 per cent of female full-time workers moved to part-time work between July and August 2009.rnThe latest ABS labour force figures for August 2009 state that full-time employment decreased by 30.800 to 7,553,800 and part-time employment increased by 3,800 to 3,209,800. People looking for full-time work fell by 8,800 to 448,100, while those looking for part-time work increased 6,600 to 175,500.