Podcasts about labour dynamics

This is according to the latest report into annual Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia - the HILDA report. Single parents are found to be the most affected due to the increase of childcare costs, while the gender gap in unpaid work widens. - È quanto emerge dall'ultimo rapporto annuale sulle dinamiche delle famiglie, del reddito e del lavoro in Australia - il rapporto HILDA. Le famiglie monoparentali risultano essere le più colpite dall'aumento dei costi per la cura dei figli, mentre il divario di genere nel lavoro non retribuito aumenta.

This is according to the latest report into annual Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia - the HILDA report. Single parents are found to be the most affected due to the increase of childcare costs, while the gender gap in unpaid work widens. - È quanto emerge dall'ultimo rapporto annuale sulle dinamiche delle famiglie, del reddito e del lavoro in Australia - il rapporto HILDA. Le famiglie monoparentali risultano essere le più colpite dall'aumento dei costi per la cura dei figli, mentre il divario di genere nel lavoro non retribuito aumenta.

Financijska nejednakost u Australiji dosegnula je najvišu razinu od 2001. To pokazuje najnovije godišnje HILDA izvješće, Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia izvješće o kućanstvima, prihodima i tržištu rada. Najviše su pogođeni samohrani roditelji zbog rasta troškova skrbi o djeci, dok se rodni jaz u neplaćenom radu dodatno produbljuje.

In heterosexual partnerships, women contribute more to housework and childcare than their male partners, even if both work full time. This was the result of the annual Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. An interesting result is that men probably don't even notice the difference. We talk about this with the co-author of the study, Dr. Inga Lass from the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research. - In heterosexuellen Partnerschaften tragen Frauen mehr zu Hausarbeit und Kinderbetreuung bei als ihre männlichen Partner, selbst wenn beide Vollzeit arbeiten. Dies hat die jährlich durchgeführte Studie Household Income and Labor Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) ergeben. Ein interessantes Ergebnis dabei ist, dass Männer den Unterschied wohl gar nicht so mitbekommen. Darüber sprechen wir mit der Co-Autorin der Studie, Dr. Inga Laß vom Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research.

Australia's financial inequality is at its highest rate since 2001. This is according to the latest report into annual Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia - the HILDA report. Single parents are found to be the most affected due to the increase of childcare costs, while the gender gap in unpaid work widens. - Уровень финансового неравенства в Австралии самый высокий с 2001 года. К такому выводу пришли авторы отчета HILDA о ежегодной динамике домохозяйств, доходов и труда в Австралии.

Every year since 2001, a study has looked at how Australian households are changing. It's called the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia, or HILDA, survey, and it captures trends across a broad cross-section of Australians’ finances, social life, mental health, household activities and family life. Among its most recent findings is that men are doing the same amount of housework on average as they were 20 years ago. On today’s podcast, we dissect its findings, and discuss what has and hasn’t changed about Australia since the turn of the century. Hosts: Sam Koslowski and Billi FitzSimonsProducer: Orla Maher Want to support The Daily Aus? That's so kind! The best way to do that is to click ‘follow’ on Spotify or Apple and to leave us a five-star review. We would be so grateful. The Daily Aus is a media company focused on delivering accessible and digestible news to young people. We are completely independent. Want more from TDA?Subscribe to The Daily Aus newsletterSubscribe to The Daily Aus’ YouTube Channel Have feedback for us?We’re always looking for new ways to improve what we do. If you’ve got feedback, we’re all ears. Tell us here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Australia's financial inequality is at its highest rate since 2001. This is according to the latest report into annual Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia - the HILDA report. Single parents are found to be the most affected due to the increase of childcare costs, while the gender gap in unpaid work widens. - 報告顯示，澳洲經濟不平等的程度達到20年來最高水平，而女性雖然工作時間增加，但仍然要承擔大部份家務。

Australia's financial inequality is at its highest rate since 2001. This is according to the latest report into annual Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia - the HILDA report. Single parents are found to be the most affected due to the increase of childcare costs, while the gender gap in unpaid work widens. - آسٹریلیا میں مالی عدم مساوات کی شرح 2001 کے بعد سب سے زیادہ ہے۔ یہ آسٹریلیا میں سالانہ گھریلو، آمدنی اور لیبر ڈائنامکس یعنی ہلڈا کی تازہ ترین رپورٹ کے مطابق ہے بچوں کی دیکھ بھال کے اخراجات میں اضافے کی وجہ سے سنگل والدین سب سے زیادہ متاثر ہوئے ہیں، جب کہ بلا معاوضہ کام میں صنفی فرق وسیع ہوتا ہے، جیسا کہ رپورٹ سے واضح ہے

Australia's financial inequality is at its highest rate since 2001. This is according to the latest report into annual Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia - the HILDA report. Single parents are found to be the most affected due to the increase of childcare costs, while the gender gap in unpaid work widens.

According to the latest HILDA (Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia) report, young Australians are more likely to experience loneliness and psychological distress than any other age group. For twenty years, HILDA has been interviewing the same network of 17,000 Australians, every year, to compile results that give us comprehensive insight into the lives of Australians. To help us understand more about what is causing this loneliness epidemic, we speak to one of the experts behind the data on today's podcast. Host: Emma Gillespie Want to support The Daily Aus? That's so kind! The best way to do that is to click ‘follow’ on Spotify or Apple and to leave us a five-star review. We would be so grateful. The Daily Aus is a media company focused on delivering accessible and digestible news to young people. We are completely independent. Want more from TDA?Subscribe to The Daily Aus newsletterSubscribe to The Daily Aus’ YouTube Channel Have feedback for us?We’re always looking for new ways to improve what we do. If you’ve got feedback, we’re all ears. Tell us here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

According to the latest HILDA (Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia) report, young Australians are more likely to experience loneliness and psychological distress than any other age group. For twenty years, HILDA has been interviewing the same network of 17,000 Australians, every year, to compile results that give us comprehensive insight into the lives of Australians. To help us understand more about what is causing this loneliness epidemic, we speak to one of the experts behind the data on today's podcast. Credits:Hosts: Zara Seidler and Emma GillespieGuest: Professor Roger Wilkins, Co-Director of the HILDA Survey Project and Deputy Director of the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social ResearchAudio Producer: Emmeline PetersonGive your thoughts via our podcast surveySubscribe to The Daily Aus newsletterBuy our book No Silly Questions See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

كشفت نتائج دراسة The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey والمعروفة اختصارا بHILDA ان معدل التواصل الاجتماعي قد انخفض بشكل كبير منذ 2001 وتفاقم بشكل اكبر في فترة جائحة كورونا.

In an extensive new report by the University of Melbourne, the effects of the early pandemic on the wellbeing of Australians has been revealed. The results from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey show Victorians and, in particular, those living in Melbourne were especially affected by the 2020 lockdown measures. - งานวิจัย ม.เมลเบิร์น เผยผลกระทบจากการแพร่ระบาดใหญ่ของไวรัสโคโรนายังส่งผลกระทบต่อประชาชนอย่างต่อเนื่อง โดยเฉพาะประชาชนในเมลเบิร์น ที่ต้องพบกับมาตรการล็อกดาวน์ที่รัดกุมจากสถานการณ์ที่รุนแรงกว่ารัฐอื่น

In an extensive new report by the University of Melbourne, the effects of the early pandemic on the wellbeing of Australians has been revealed. The results from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey show Victorians and, in particular, those living in Melbourne were especially affected by the 2020 lockdown measures.

In the latest Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia poll, 33.1% of Melburnians said they feel "much worse off" after the pandemic. But Deputy Director of the Melbourne Institute and of the HILDA Survey program, Roger Wilkins, says there was an unexpected benefit to come from the pandemic.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In an extensive new report by the University of Melbourne, the effects of the early pandemic on the wellbeing of Australians has been revealed. The results from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey show Victorians and, in particular, those living in Melbourne were especially affected by the 2020 lockdown measures. - У розгорнутій новій доповіді Університету Мельбурна було виявлено вплив ранньої пандемії на добробут австралійців. Результати опитування «Динаміка домогосподарств, доходів і праці в Австралії» показують, що карантинні заходи 2020 року особливо вплинули на жителів Вікторії та, зокрема, на мешканців Мельбурну.

Please welcome Gab's sister-in-law Eleanor to the podcast! Sarah is currently smashing through her last assignments for the uni semester so Gab invited El in for a chat about postpartum exercise, unexpected body changes after childbirth, and why you should talk to your GP about young on-set bowel cancer. Contact us: womenlikeyoupodcast@gmail.com Mum Safehttps://mumsafe.com.au  The Guardian: Men take time from female partners for exercise, Australian study finds https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/may/06/men-take-time-from-female-partners-for-exercise-australian-study-finds  Living in Australia: The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey https://www.dss.gov.au/about-the-department/longitudinal-studies/living-in-australia-hilda-household-income-and-labour-dynamics-in-australia-overview  Young on-set Bowel Cancerhttps://www.bowelcanceraustralia.org/young-onset  WLY newsletter subscription  The Women Like You podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. We pay our respects to elders past, present and emerging. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the land where we live, work, and exercise. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Motherhood Penalty in Australia is staggering, but it's not beyond our imagination to change this. Georgie Dent co-hosts the podcast this week, to explain more on the more than $800,000 penalty working mothers face in Australia, why childcare and parental leave could transform Australia, and the campaign pushing to change that through The Parenthood. In more research, we look into the latest HILDA data just released, highlighting all the additional unpaid hours of work women are putting in, as well as some curious other trends including why young women are staying home longer, and how men and women are having less children than they thought they would. Plus, we highlight the rise of (mostly female) independents who look set to change everything we know about politics, and how Mackenzie Scott became the world's most powerful woman, according to Forbes. Our guest is Dr Esperanza Vera-Toscano, economist and senior research fellow at the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, and an author of the latest Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) report. Esperanza is interviewed by Women's Agenda journalist Madeline Hislop. Thanks to our podcast supporter Superhero, we also share the FINHACK that will save Christmas and teach you a few things about those individuals you've spent years buying gifts for Stories discussed in this episode include: Former journalist Zoe Daniel to run as an independent against Liberal MP Tim WilsonMacKenzie Scott tops Forbes' 2021 most powerful women listThe motherhood penalty costs the average working woman in Australia $876K: New reportHILDA survey reveals women still do almost double the unpaid work of menHILDA shows the changing face of 21st century AustraliaThe Women's Agenda podcast is produced by Agenda Media, the 100% female-run and owned publisher of Women's Agenda. You can check out our other podcast, The Leadership Lessons and the Women's Health Project. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Since the turn of the century, the annual Household Income and Labour Dynamics report - known as HILDA - has tracked the progress of more than 9,500 households.

In this second series of Inform, we’ll be discussing accessibility. But not as you might know it. From the workplace to the classroom, we’ll be asking what accessibility means and why it matters. We’ll also be discussing some strategies and tips for things like advocating for accessibility or accessing information on assistive technology. Accessibility in regional and rural Australia Around 7 million people live in regional and rural Australia, that’s nearly a third of the population. For people with disabilities, living regionally presents some unique challenges. Chief among them access to services and supports. But, despite the challenges, there’s plenty of good. The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey revealed that people living in non-urban areas generally have higher levels of life satisfaction. That’s something our guests in this episode can attest to. In episode four, we spoke with David Timms. David is a complete spinal cord paraplegic. He lives in regional Victoria, about two hours north of Melbourne. To live here has some disadvantages but the advantages of being able to wake up in the morning, go through your morning routine — and being double incontinent that normally takes about an hour — have your breakfast out on your back deck looking at the kangaroos jumping around your property, listen to the birds, this time of year the lake has got the swans with their babies around. And you just don’t get that in Melbourne. The peace and quiet is very suitable for my lifestyle —  David Timms Making accessible communities Also, in this episode, we speak with Bev Watson, a Rural Access Worker for a regional shire in Western Victoria. Bev works to make her community a more accessible and inclusive space. She has some practical advice for anyone wanting to engage more with their regional community. For someone who’s thinking of going to a region or rural area, I would say, do your homework. Check out the sorts of health services available, service providers, if you require service providers, check out whether or not they actually can service wherever you’re going to be living. Check out a lot of the community groups and see which of those you feel you might be able to be part of when you move into the town because it’s a great way to get to know a place and it’s a great way to get to know the people in it in a town or region —  Bev Watson Do you have a story of accessibility that you’d like to share? Get in touch at inform@iagroup.org.au Thank you for joining us for episode four of series two of the Inform podcast. If you’re keen to hear more, you can go back and listen to the first three episodes of this series or our first series where we focused on work. You can find those episodes here. This is the final episode in our series on accessibility. We’ll be back soon with more but in the meantime, you can find all our episodes from this series and from our earlier series on work here, or subscribe to Inform on your preferred podcast listening app to stay up to date. Host & Producer: Kirby Fenwick Managing editor: Alison Crowe Sound Designer: Imogen Hanrahan With thanks to David Timms and Bev Watson. Ready to read more? Try these Inform links: Series 2, Episode 3: Higher Education How the NDIS helped me to travel the world Series 2, Episode 2: Assistive Technology

Does Noel Pearson's argument that ‘the Voice' is based on indigeneity and not race stand up? (01:30-17:00) What are the options for conservatives seeking to combat internet mobs and academic packs bent on defaming (or downright destroying) an individual, as happened recently to Nigel Biggar and Roger Scruton? (17:00-35:00)  And does the Melbourne Institute's latest HILDA survey really show a rise in inequality? (90:35-0:45) Dr Chris Berg and Scott Hargreaves are joined by Dr Bella D'Abrera and Andrew Bushnell to discuss these questions and share their culture picks, including a book on the unresolved legacy of the Vietnam War by Pulitzer Price-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen (0:45-0:49), the final cut of the classic 1979 film ‘Apocalypse Now'(0:49-0:54), a Latin American soap opera on the Liberator, Simón Bolívar (0:54-:59) and Geoffrey Blainey's autobiography, ‘Before I Forget' (0:59-01:03:22). Quillette podcast with Toby Young and Nigel Biggar on how to deal with online outrage mobs https://player.fm/series/quillette-podcast/quillettes-toby-young-talks-to-professor-nigel-biggar-about-academic-outrage-mobs-and-how-to-defeat-them Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War by Viet Thanh Nguyen https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674660342 Before I Forget by Geoffrey Blainey https://www.penguin.com.au/books/before-i-forget-9781760890339 Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Statistical Report 2019 https://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/3127664/HILDA-Statistical-Report-2019.pdf Noel Pearson's remarks to the Key Forum, Cape York Institute, 3 August 2019 https://capeyorkpartnership.org.au/all-updates/all-we-seek-is-our-rightful-place-thank-you/ Bolivar on Netflix https://www.netflix.com/au/title/80220422 Apocalypse Now: The Final Cut https://apocalypsenowfinalcut.com/

New research shows financial and social inequality are still rife in many parts of Australian life. Analyses of the annual Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey between 2001 and 2017 shows poverty has risen and it's hitting women particularly hard. - Rezultati novoga istraživanja pokazuju da su financijska i društvena nejednakost još uvijek prisutne u mnogim sferama australske svakodnevice. Analiza godišnjeg istraživanja kućanstava, dohotka i dinamike tržišta rada u Australiji između 2001 i 2017. pokazuje da je siromaštvo poraslo te da posebno snažno pogađa žene.

In this interview, Steve Davis talks with researcher Cain Polidano about his report on the role of vocational education and training in the labour market outcomes of people with disabilities. Low levels of education generally among people with a disability is one of the factors contributing to their lower rate of labour market participation. What role vocational education and training (VET) plays in ameliorating this is the focus of this report. Using data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics of Australia surveys, the report finds that for people who are not working, completing a VET qualification does increase the chance of employment and more so for people with a disability.Original broadcast date: 23 March 2010

You know you're not supposed to do this -- but you do. ShutterstockHow did you sleep last night? If you had anything other than eight interrupted hours of peaceful, restful sleep then guess what? It’s not that bad – it’s actually pretty normal. We recently asked five sleep researchers if everyone needs eight hours of sleep a night and they all said no, you don’t. Read more: Does everyone need eight hours of sleep? We asked five experts In fact, only about one quarter of us report getting eight or more hours of sleep. That’s according to the huge annual Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey which now tracks more than 17,500 people in 9500 households. We’ll hear today from Roger Wilkins, who runs the HILDA survey at University of Melbourne, on what exactly the survey found about how much and how well Australians sleep. But first, you’ll hear from sleep expert Melinda Jackson, Senior Research Fellow in the School of Health and Biomedical Sciences, RMIT University, about what the evidence shows about how we used to sleep in pre-industrial times, and what promising research is on the horizon. Here’s a taste: Listen. Trust Me, I’m An Expert is a podcast where we ask academics to surprise, delight and inform us with their research. You can download previous episodes here. And please, do check out other podcasts from The Conversation – including The Conversation US’ Heat and Light, about 1968 in the US, and The Anthill from The Conversation UK, as well as Media Files, a podcast all about the media. You can find all our podcasts over here. The two segments in today’s podcast were recorded and edited by Dilpreet Kaur Taggar. Additional editing by Sunanda Creagh. Read more: I can't sleep. What drugs can I (safely) take? Additional audio and credits Kindergarten by Unkle Ho, from Elefant Traks Morning Two by David Szesztay, Free Music Archive.

You may have heard something recently about HILDA - the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey. You can see the most recent results on our Unimelb news site, Pursuit. But how exactly does HILDA work? And what are the implications of such a report? Silvi Vann-Wall chats with Professor Roger Wilkins, the Melbourne Institute Deputy Director and co-report author, who gets philosophical about HILDA. This episode was recorded on 26 July 2018. Production by Silvi Vann-Wall. Editing by Silvi Vann-Wall & Audio Engineering by Chris Hatzis. Five Things About is a training podcast created by Dr Andi Horvath at the University of Melbourne.

You may have heard something recently about HILDA - the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey. You can see the most recent results on our Unimelb news site, Pursuit. But how exactly does HILDA work? And what are the implications of such a report? Silvi Vann-Wall chats with Professor Roger Wilkins, the Melbourne Institute Deputy Director and co-report author, who gets philosophical about HILDA.This episode was recorded on 26 July 2018. Production by Silvi Vann-Wall.Editing by Silvi Vann-Wall & Audio Engineering by Chris Hatzis.Five Things About is a training podcast created by Dr Andi Horvath at the University of Melbourne.

The enormous Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey tells the stories of the same group of Australians over the course of their lives. Mavis Wong/The Conversation NY-BD-CC, CC BY-SAOn today’s episode of the podcast, we’re talking about what one of Australia’s biggest longitudinal surveys and richest data sets, released today, says about how the nation is changing. And some of the trends may surprise you. The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey tells the stories of the same group of Australians over the course of their lives. Starting in 2001, the survey now tracks more than 17,500 people in 9,500 households, asking about their economic well-being, health and family life. So what does this year’s report tell us about the country Australia has become? Here to break it all down for us today is Roger Wilkins from the University of Melbourne, lead author of the report. Read more: HILDA Survey reveals striking gender and age divide in financial literacy. Test yourself with this quiz Wilkins said he was surprised by what this huge survey showed about Australians’ financial literacy, our energy use, how many of us are putting off getting a driver’s licence, how our economy is changing, and how our attitudes toward marriage and family life are shifting. The report reveals some insights into where we perhaps need to concentrate our public policy efforts to boost Australia’s economic well-being. What does it all mean for you and me? Listening to Roger Wilkins explain it all may just inspire you to rethink your own financial future. Roger Wilkins spoke to The Conversation’s deputy politics and society editor Justin Bergman. We’ve included an edited transcript below. What is HILDA and why does it matter? Justin Bergman: Roger, in a nutshell I’d love to start out by just hearing what the HILDA survey is and why this matters to people. Roger Wilkins: The HILDA survey is Australia’s nationally representative longitudinal study of Australians. It started in 2001 and it’s a bit like the ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) cross-sectional surveys we’re familiar with, where we get information on people’s employment, their family life, their incomes, their health and well-being. But what distinguishes HILDA is that we’re following the same people year in, year out. So we are getting a moving picture of people’s lives rather than the cross-sectional snapshot or photograph that the ABS surveys give us. So that’s really what’s unique about HILDA. We’re now entering our 18th year. So we’re getting a really rich picture of how people’s lives evolve over time, and it allows us to answer all sorts of questions that we couldn’t do with cross-sectional data. Things like: if someone is poor in one year, how likely are they to be poor the next year? You can’t answer that with cross-sectional data but with our data you can see how long, whether it’s the same people who are poor year in, year out, or whether it tends to be a temporary affair. And moreover, you can look at: well, who are the people who managed to get themselves out of poverty? And who are the people who don’t? This gives us incredibly useful information for policymakers about who are the people who are persistently struggling, for example, and therefore we should be thinking more about from a policy perspective. And that’s just one example of many in terms of the value of the HILDA Survey. Some of the findings in this year’s HILDA report. Energy spending is falling Justin Bergman: I realise it’s probably a great deal of data to pore through and lots of interesting findings we’re going to get into in this podcast. Were there any that you found particularly surprising or interesting, just off the top? Roger Wilkins: Well, we have been tracking people’s household expenditure since 2005 and that includes their expenditure on home energy. Things like electricity and gas. So, we thought, well, there’s been a lot of attention recently to rising prices for electricity and gas. So we thought, well let’s have a look at what’s been happening to household expenditure. That’s different to the price because your expenditure depends on not only the price but how much of the energy you use. And one thing that surprised me was that the HILDA data is showing that people’s expenditure actually peaked in around 2014. So since then people have actually been decreasing their expenditure, in real terms at least, adjusting for inflation. So that was something that I wasn’t expecting because there’s been a lot of recent media about prices continuing to rise since 2014 and yet expenditure hasn’t been rising since 2014. What it seems is that people are have been adapting to these higher prices and doing things like buying energy-efficient appliances, insulating their homes, installing solar panels, perhaps heating fewer rooms in the house in winter. That sort of thing seems to have been going on. So, as I said, the total expenditure on home energy has actually declined slightly since 2014. Cognitive ability and decline Justin Bergman: Great. And one of the interesting chapters that we thought was quite surprising was the one about measuring cognitive ability. And I wanted to ask you, starting off, what are the factors that you looked at in this chapter, when it comes to what contributes to cognitive decline? Roger Wilkins: Yes, so we have now in two years - in 2012 and 2016 - administered these tests which are called “cognitive ability tasks”. They ask the respondents to perform various activities which allow us to produce measures of their cognitive functioning or their cognitive ability. And because we have, as I said before, we’re following the same people year in, year out, we can actually look at how these measures of cognitive ability changed between 2012 and 2016. And we do indeed find that, particularly at the older end of the age spectrum, that there is considerable cognitive decline; that people’s performance on these tests does decline, particularly once you sort of get over the age of 70 - 75. That’s when we really start to see that decline becoming quite sizeable. So one of the things that we did in this year’s report is looked at whether there were things other than age that were predictive of cognitive decline. And we were particularly interested in whether there were various cognitive activities or other activities that you might engage in that could protect against cognitive decline. So we looked at things like how often you do puzzles, things like crosswords, how often you read, how often you write, whether you use a computer regularly, whether you do any volunteering, whether you are actually doing any paid employment, how often you look after grandchildren. These sorts of activities, the basis that perhaps the more stimulated you are cognitively, the less decline you’d experience. And the overriding result we found is that very little seems to protect against cognitive decline. We find some evidence in favour of doing puzzles regularly, things like crosswords, where on one of the measures of cognitive ability it did seem to reduce the extent of decline. But broadly speaking, most of these cognitive activities didn’t seem to impact on the extent of decline. Justin Bergman: But doing puzzles was one that you saw that did have an impact. Any idea why that might have been? Roger Wilkins: Well, I mean, the logic is that it’s sort of the “use it or lose it” argument; that if you’re using your brain, in the same way as if you were exercising a muscle, it keeps it in better condition. That’s sort of the logic. But for some reason we don’t, for example, find that with writing regularly. That probably is suggestive that doing your crosswords or Sudoku or the like is perhaps not a bad idea, particularly if you enjoy doing them, because it might be having this beneficial side effect. We also looked at perhaps what you think of as behaviours that might be adverse to cognitive functioning. So, in particular, things like smoking and drinking. And there is some evidence that heavy consumption of alcohol does accelerate cognitive decline but we don’t find any effects of smoking. Justin Bergman: Very interesting. So do your puzzles and try to avoid alcohol as much as possible. Roger Wilkins: Sounds like common sense, doesn’t it? More young people are delaying getting a driver’s license Justin Bergman: So, going to the chapter about people driving in Australia, what did you notice about the data on driver’s licences? Roger Wilkins: Yes, well, I mean, people would not be surprised to learn that most people do have a driver’s licence. Although a surprising - well, for me, at least - quite a surprisingly high proportion of young people in the 18-24 range don’t have a driver’s licence. So while most people — over 90% — eventually get their licence, for many of them it’s not until their late 20s or even their 30s when they do get their licence. So, for example, in the 18-19 range, over a third of people in that age range don’t have a driver’s licence. And something that we see in just the four-year period between 2012 and 2016: when we asked people whether they have a driver’s licence, even over that short period, we have seen a decline in the proportion of people who have a driver’s licence in that age range. So whether that’s because the requirements in order to pass the test have been tending to ramp up in most states, I’m not sure. Certainly, there obviously have always been significant costs for obtaining a licence which might be a barrier for young people but I’m not sure that, you know, the extent to which those costs have increased. For example, requiring logbooks with a certain number of hours of driving, I’m not sure exactly the timing of when those increases in requirements have occurred. But certainly this data is showing an increasing proportion of young people without a licence. Many men hang on to their driver’s licence until later in life Justin Bergman: Right, and on the opposite end of the spectrum, we also noticed that a large number of people in the older generations have driver’s licences. But specifically, you found 74.6% of men born in the 1920s still held a licence in 2016. So what does the data tell us about older people with driving? Roger Wilkins: I think certainly we see that loss of licence - whether it’s relinquished or having it cancelled - is very much concentrated amongst older people. Although surprisingly, for me at least, a surprisingly high proportion of young people do seem to lose their licence over a four-year period. So, you know, at least sort of 2-3% of people in their 20s and 30s reported that they had a licence in 2012 and they didn’t in 2016. The extent to which that is because they had traffic violations that resulted in suspension or cancellation, I’m not sure. We didn’t ask why they didn’t have a licence but that did surprise me. Certainly, the rates of loss of licence are much higher amongst the older age groups. But, as you said, nearly three-quarters of men born in the 1920s - so they’re all, I guess, at least 86 years old in 2016 - so at least three-quarters or nearly three-quarters of men aged 86 and over still held a driver’s licence. And that does certainly seem quite high and it’s certainly a lot higher than amongst women. So it does seem that men hang on to their licences a lot longer. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re driving. You can have a licence without driving but it’s probably strongly correlated with driving. So it does suggest that, you know, particularly men are able to hang on to their licence longer than or are willing to hold on to them longer than women. The share of workers who describe themselves as ‘self-employed’ is falling Justin Bergman: Moving on, can you tell us a little bit about what the data showed us about self-employed workers that you found interesting or surprising in the survey? Roger Wilkins: Yes, certainly what is interesting is that self-employment has been declining this century. So at least the proportion of people in the labour market who describe themselves as self-employed has been declining for the last 16 plus years. And that’s especially concentrated on people who employ others, so we’re really talking here about a decline in small business. And this is, I guess, rather at odds with a lot of the rhetoric we see amongst politicians about how small business is the engine of the economy and where growth in jobs comes from. And the evidence is quite to the contrary: that in fact our employment growth has really not come from small business or from self-employment. It’s really been coming from larger employers, be they medium or large businesses. And I think given what we’re observing in the trends, I think that’s something that over coming years will continue. That it is probably, to my view, a bit wrong-headed to think that that stimulating employment in small business is the way to generate jobs in the community more broadly. I think the changing structure of the economy is actually moving us further away from that than towards it. And in that context it’s also interesting that for all the talk about the rise of the gig economy, these are these jobs that are I guess facilitated by apps on phones and things like Uber and Deliveroo and things like that. We don’t see evidence in the data of much growth in employment of this kind. So as I said, self-employment has actually been declining. You might think well, maybe many of these gig-type jobs are secondary jobs. So that while people in their main job are employed, perhaps in a second job they’re a gig worker doing some Uber driving on the side. But we haven’t seen a growth in multiple job-holding either. So it seems so far that most of these gig jobs have really been about transforming jobs that already existed, so taxi drivers have always tended to be self-employed. Uber drivers are self-employed. We’ve got sort of a compositional change, a bit of a shift away from traditional taxis towards these Uber drivers. It’s the same with, I guess, food delivery. Casual observation would suggest that there has been a rise in these gig-type jobs but I think it’s easy for us to overestimate how significant a phenomenon this is. On marriage and housework, our attitudes are changing faster than our behaviour Justin Bergman: It is really interesting, actually. We were also quite surprised by some of the things you see in the attitudes towards marriage and family changing. And I was curious what you’re seeing in terms of attitudes in Australian society becoming more progressive on this front. Roger Wilkins: Well, you’ve essentially summed up what we find. For a long time now, we’ve been tracking people’s attitudes to marriage and family and to parenting and paid work. This allows us to produce measures of the extent to which people have what we might call “progressive views”, which, in very loose terms, is the extent to which people are in favour of men taking a more active role in raising children and women taking a greater role in bringing in the household income, so being more engaged in the labour market. There are other dimensions to these measures of traditional views versus progressive views. But that’s probably the most important dimension and we’re certainly seeing that views are becoming considerably more progressive. There’s been quite substantial change over the course of this century. What, to me, was interesting is that when you actually look then at how behaviour is changing then it seems that these changes in attitudes aren’t really translating so far into much change in how people behave. This is very much connected to the arrival of children. So before children arrive, men and women have quite similar-looking division of their labour – the amount of time they spend in employment, the amount of time they spend on housework and so forth is quite similar. But once the first child arrives, and this is probably not news to anyone who has had kids out there, but there’s a sharp divide that opens up between men and women. Women withdraw, to a large extent, from the labour market and men, to a large extent, withdraw from the home production - if you like, from the housework and the care. And what’s really interesting is how this persists. So even once the children age and move through school and even beyond, we still see this division persisting. So the arrival of the child precipitates a change, so even when the care requirements of the children diminish and so forth, we still see this divide between men and women persist. So, I think there are good economic explanations for this but I also think that there are reasons, from a public policy point of view, for us to be concerned about this. And really, it relates to the fact that we know probably around one in three marriages will end in divorce - maybe more, maybe a bit less going forward. That, therefore, means that women are much more vulnerable in that post-divorce world than men because they’ve put their careers on hold, their income-earning potential is considerably lower than men’s. And so therefore their economic well-being is likely to be lower than men’s post-divorce. And then that has flow on effects into their retirement living standard because their superannuation contributions will be lower. So I think while it might make economic sense for men and women to specialise in this way, it is having this undesirable longer-term consequence for women’s well-being and that’s why we do see higher rates of poverty amongst single women, particularly single parent women and elderly single women, than we see for men. Justin Bergman: Interesting. I don’t know if you’ve tracked these data for same-sex couples as well. Have you noticed any divisions in terms of attitudes toward housework and the divide in other types of marriages? Roger Wilkins: No, so we haven’t looked at that this year. One of the problems in doing so is that the HILDA survey is a sample survey, so while we have 17,500 people from right across Australia, which gives us a lot of potential to produce reliable estimates on what is happening in the community, when you look at particular demographic subgroups it becomes more difficult to make reliable statements about overall trends. So while same-sex couples are a significant minority in the community, they are still quite a small part of the HILDA survey sample. So it becomes a bit more difficult to be confident in estimates based on small demographic groups. Australia has its problems, but society still functions well for most Justin Bergman: Just wrapping up, looking at the data as a whole, I’m curious what story you think it’s telling about how Australia’s going, how it’s changing, where it’s going at the moment? Roger Wilkins: Well, I mean for all its problems - and there are, of course, many - the clear picture from HILDA Survey that Australia is a well-functioning society in which most people feel able to pursue fulfilling lives, pursue their aspirations and live the life, or a form of the life, that they aspire to. So while, of course, there is much to do to make our society work better, I think we risk making some big mistakes, moving forward, if we aren’t cognisant of how much is already working quite well. I think that’s something that probably gets lost a bit in a lot of public discussion and media. We tend to focus on the negative and that creates, I think, an impression of much greater dysfunction in our society than is actually the case. Now, you have always got to very quickly follow up such a statement with the caveat that of course there are problems and HILDA certainly identifies many of these problems and concerns that we should be addressing. But I guess there’s always the risk of of overreacting and therefore damaging things that are good about our community in seeking to solve some other problems. So, that said, what sort of trends come out of the data that would be of concern? I think decline in home ownership is a very big concern that has a very strong link to growing evidence of intergenerational inequality, so particularly younger people in the age range up to around 40, compared with older people, the baby boomer generation. There’s been a growth in inequality across the generations and it’s very much tied to home ownership. We also we have this persistent disadvantage among many single parents and I think that’s a continuing priority for policy, in my view. And the other persistent trend that remains a concern is that household incomes are quite stagnant and that’s very much related to the stagnation in wages. It’s one thing to be concerned about it but it’s less obvious what you do to address it. Justin Bergman: Roger, thank you so much, very illuminating. We really appreciate you breaking it down for us and taking the time to be with us. Thank you. Roger Wilkins: Thank you. Additional audio Kindergarten by Unkle Ho, from Elefant Traks The Anthill podcast, episode 27: Confidence, from The Conversation UK.

On this episode, we speak to Peter Siminski, professor of economics at the University of Technology Sydney, about income mobility in Australia.Plus, Nicole speaks to former New South Wales Premier and Foreign Affairs Minister, Bob Carr about the importance of equality of opportunities in AustraliaFurther Reading:Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) SurveyBob Carr’s new book Run For Your Life is available in bookstores now. All proceeds go to UNHCR to children displaced by the Syrian War.Professor James Heckman on the ‘ returns on early childhood education’More information on Peter Siminski’s research can be found on the UTS website

Melbourne University's Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey follows the lives of over 17,000 Australians. Nicole Lessio, Acting Executive Director of The Parenthood, takes us through the findings and how they relate to families.