Outsourcing and the Use of Contractors: Evidence from the AWIRS

Abstract

Data from the two rounds of the Australian Workplace Relations Survey conducted in 1989/90 and 1995 are used to examine the extent of growth in outsourced labour (or contracting out), the characteristics of workplaces which are intensive users of outsourced labour, and the sources of growth in contractor-based employment. A key conclusion reached is that growth in the incidence of outsourcing is not a function of employment growth being most rapid in those types of firms and industries which have traditionally used contractors, but instead has taken place across a wide range of workplaces.