Consideration of labor force participation rates can provide marketers with an understanding of drivers of some key consumption trends. In Australia, the most important long-term employment trend has been the increase in the participation rate of women in the workforce. In 1971, this stood at 37.1 percent, and in the latest census of 2001, had risen to 55.3 percent (Australian Bureau of Statistics 1971, 2001a). This increase in the participation rate of women in the workforce has had profound demographic changes on household structures and sizes, which will be discussed later.
On entering the workforce, women may delay having children, have fewer children,or not have children. Having more women in the workforce has also led to an increase in the number of two-income households. (In the 2001 census, around 43 percent of all families in Australia had both parents in the workforce.) The nature of consumer behavior also changes. For example, as the number of females in the workforce with dependent children increases, the requirement for convenience also increases.
This is especially so given that male partners also tend to continue to work. As will be discussed in a later section on household expenditure, families are
eating out more often and are buying takeout, frozen, and preprepared meals. These female labor force participation rates correspond with a growing demand for services, such as child care, dry cleaning, house cleaning, and gardening.
