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Category: Women / Business, Economics and Finance / Economic Trends / Community and Society

Young women 'greatest untapped potential' in Australia: OECD report

Friday, 10 Mar 2017 07:19:26 | Peter Ryan

Kids look out for their mum amongst runners in Melbourne taking part in the Mother's Day Classic fun run to raise funds for breast cancer research on May 9, 2010. (AAP: Joe Castro, file)

Young women at home looking after children represent "the greatest untapped potential" in Australia's workforce, according to an OECD report out today.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development also warned the Australian economy would continue to suffer unless mothers were encouraged back to work.

"There are potentially large losses to the economy when women stay at home or work short part-time hours, " the OECD said in its study of employment participation in Australia.

"One of the areas of greatest untapped potential in the Australian labour force is inactive and/or part time working women, especially those with children."

The OECD said tapping the potential of women, especially highly-educated stay-at-home mums, would be a boost to the Australian economy.

Economic growth in OECD countries would increase by 20 per cent over the next 20 years if female labour participation matched the level of men, the OECD stated.

The reality check on the potential of women who chose to stay at home with their children coincided with the decision by Labor frontbencher Kate Ellis to quit politics to spend more time with her young son.

However, the OECD maintained that paid employment was "important for women's personal wellbeing and perceptions of their overall quality of life".

According to the study, the employment rate of Australian women aged between 25 and 54 is at 72.5 per cent, but ranks in the lower third of OECD countries.

The employment rate of single mothers is 50.8 per cent, the third lowest in the OECD ranking after Ireland and Turkey.

It also found that 54 women aged between 25 and 34 have university qualifications, compared to 43 per cent of men.

The OECD found that people with a disability, a mental health condition and disadvantaged youth were badly represented in Australia's labour force.

"These groups face considerable and other multiple barriers to employment," the OECD said

"Lacking work experience, low education and poor health are the single most important employment barriers."

The OECD urged a better combination of various government policies to assist overrepresented groups, in particular Indigenous Australians.

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