Looking Inside the Unemployment Spell

As data from multiple waves of HILDA become available, Australian researchers will be able to study the unemployment spell in detail never before possible, hopefully leading to an improved understanding of the nature and impact of unemployment. This paper makes an initial contribution in analysing the experience of unemployed Australians based on a range of variables available in the Wave 1 data, largely with a view to highlighting HILDA’s potential for future research in this area. Aspects of unemployment investigated include the perceived barriers to employment, job search methods, financial circumstances, subjective measures of ‘wellbeing’ and the role of social support and ‘social network capital’ in shaping the unemployment experience. The initial findings show that the unemployed are clearly worse off than other Australians on a range of measures, however no pronounced deterioration in their circumstances with time in unemployment is observed.