Western Australia's Boom Economy: Insights from Three Studies‪.‬

The term "boom" is frequently used to refer to the Western Australian economy and, given current levels of activity in WA's mining sector, this is hardly surprising. In response to increased demand for mineral and petroleum products, particularly from China, the annual value of production in these sectors exceeded forecasts for 2006/07 and increased over the previous year by 24.7 per cent, or $10.6 billion (WA Department of Industry and Resources 2007). In September 2007, the State's labour force participation rate of 68.8 per cent was the highest recorded since the monthly data series commenced in 1978 and was higher than all other States. At 3.5 per cent, the State's unemployment rate was the lowest in Australia and job advertisements were consistently at historically high levels (WA Department of Treasury and Finance 2007). In general, Western Australia exhibits features consistent with the colloquial label "boom economy". The rewards of Western Australia's minerals boom are, however, unevenly distributed. Women's labour market experiences are one example. In this article we compare and contrast insights from three diverse research projects that have examined specific aspects of WA women's employment experiences and expectations. Firstly, we review patterns in WA's gender wage gap during two waves of industrial relations reform, one at the State level and one Federal. At an aggregate level, this demonstrates a relatively inequitable sharing of the rewards from economic growth that appears linked to specific forms of employment contract (Preston and Jefferson 2007). Secondly, we overview insights into the experiences of women working in low paid sectors of the WA labour market (Jefferson, Preston, Chapple-Fahlesson, and Mitchell 2007). Thirdly, we discuss a study of young women who are undergraduate students considering careers in the minerals sectors. The study gives insights into young women's opportunities to engage in minerals industry employment as a direct means of sharing in the wealth being generated by the mineral and energy boom (Lord, Preston, and Crosbie 2007).