The Australian jobs market is changing. More people are seeking out flexible work arrangements and when that doesn’t work, they’re starting things for themselves.
Victoria Garlick is one such person. She’s the founder of Aussie start-up air events global, which is essentially an online platform that connects those wanting to work in events, with those needing to hire people to work on events. Simple.
The platform allows businesses and everyday users to post job briefs, detail the list of roles they are looking for, which can stretch from booking a virtual assistant to digitally pre-planning an event, to professional wait staff to cater for an event.
The concept taps into the growing casualisation of the Australia workforce.
Like many other developed nations, Australia has seen part time employment grow as a share of the employment pie, and over the last decade, it’s increased from 28 per cent of the workforce to 32 per cent according to the most recent numbers from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The 4 per cent increase in part time employment has been evenly split between male and female workers.
But women clearly dominate the part time employment space with twice as many working this way relative to their male counterparts.
“It’s very difficult to attribute the increase in part time employment,” says Victoria.
“Whether it’s a structural shift with greater demand for labour in industries that have a higher part time intensity such as recreation and hospitality, or whether is being driven by employer flexibility whereby employers have a preference for just in time employment as a way of meeting variable demand.
“I think it’s clear that necessity has played a factor in the growth of part time employment with the record high underemployment rate of which workers are part time but would prefer to be full time attests to.”
There’s no doubt that some of the increase in part-timers can be attributed to employee preference with a growing number of people choosing a more suitable work lifestyle balance that part time and working as a freelancer provides.
But as Victoria points out, part-time isn’t without it’s challenges.
“Most notably the challenge of finding suitable work, as well as finding sufficient hours and the financial security that it provides.”
