Determinants of job separation and occupational mobility in Australia

In the year to February 2002, one in every five of the 9.8 million people who worked in Australia experienced at least one job separation. This paper looks at the determinants of job separation within a stayer/mover framework using individual-level data for Australia. Conditional on job separation the paper also investigates the determinants of job-to-job turnover (differentiated by occupation) and job-to-joblessness turnover (unemployment and exit from the labour force). The results show the importance of the normal demographic variables (age, gender, immigrant status and place of residence) but also qualifications and other labour market variables (hours of work, reason for job separation) for explaining turnover behaviour.