Ansett Retrenchment Follow-up Study

Former Treasurer John Brumby released The Post-Retrenchment Labour Market Experience of Former Ansett Airlines Employees Second Follow-up Study on Tuesday 11 January 2005.

The study was commissioned by the Department of Treasury and Finance and was undertaken by Sally Weller of the School of Anthropology, Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Melbourne.

Second Follow-up Study (2,618 kb PDF)
Original Study - December 2002 (2,469 kb PDF)

The study has found that:

• Post-retrenchment labour force participation rates of former Ansett Airlines employees were high: in April 2004, 91.6% of survey respondents were participating in the labour market and 88.7% were employed. The few people who exited the labour force either retired, returned to study, or took up domestic duties. Older workers were most likely to exit the labour force.
• By former Ansett employees' self-assessments, more than two thirds (70.9%) of 2004 survey respondents had found secure work, while 17.8% of respondents considered their employment to be insecure. By a more objective assessment based on job duration, 59.6% of survey respondents had found secure work. However, both quantitative data and qualitative comments by former Ansett employees indicate that the new jobs remained inferior to Ansett jobs in many respects.
• Of the 162 former Ansett employees that retained the same job or same employer from August 2002 to April 2004 (57.4% of employed respondents), most had improved their seniority and some had regained the status of the Ansett job.
• The proportions of former Ansett Airlines employees who were able to find new jobs in the aviation industry increased steadily from August 2002 to April 2004. As anticipated in 2002, there appeared to be a strong correlation between aviation employment, the intensity of former employees' ambition to work in aviation, personal factors (especially household circumstances) and the willingness to relocate.
• Former Ansett Airlines employees' age, gender, skill, family background and Ansett occupation contribute to these patterns of postretrenchment outcomes. Former Ansett employees stress that adverse demand conditions played a powerful role in determining individual outcomes. However, in the case of returning aviation sector employment, the study has identified motivation as an over-riding factor that subsumes other variables.
• While former Ansett employees were devastated emotionally by retrenchment, the effect of this event on lifetime career trajectories was variable. For the majority, retrenchment was a career set-back, while a significant minority - especially in older age groups - suffered long term adverse impacts to both career development and personal wellbeing.
• Ansett employees were disadvantaged by their loyalty to Ansett Airlines through the widespread response of putting careers on hold between September 2001 and February 2002 while waiting for Ansett to re-emerge.
• In the short-term, employers were wary of employing ex-Ansett staff.
• Subsequently, however, Ansett employees' attachments to the Ansett 'family' and its associated social networks assisted job placement and labour market adjustment. Former Ansett employees' high expectations in the workplace - in terms of responsibility, scope for initiative, job satisfaction and working conditions - have in general acted as a strong recommendation to potential employers.