Employment of Public Housing Residents in Australian Cities

This article explores the current employment status of people who live in public housing in Australian cities, and asks how this has changed over the past 30 years? The data sources for this article are the 1981, 1996 and 2011 ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) Census of Population and Housing. It summarises the contextual factors that have influenced public tenant employment participation over the previous 30 years. The overall employment trends for Australia then are set out, followed by an analysis of public tenant workforce participation at a metropolitan and sub-metropolitan scale for the east coast capital cities. The main finding is that the rate of public housing tenant employment is higher in many locations than might be expected, and is also subject to significant variation both between cities and regions and within cities. The article concludes with a discussion of the empirical work's implications for the future of public housing in Australia.