An analysis of regional labour markets in Australia and the role of labour market programs (LMPs)

In attempting to analyse the proposition that labour market programs (LMPs) were not creating real jobs in rural and regional Australia, this paper refers to Australian Bureau of Statistics census data from regional Australia for the period 1981 to 1996 to discuss the following issues: unemployment and labour market policy; a brief history of LMPs in Australia; LMP outcomes; job creation data from rural and regional Australia (RaRA); labour mobility in RaRA; and job matching evidence from RaRA.