Our work patterns under study

It's generally agreed that gainful employment is central to most people's lives.

But just how vital is its impact?

A new AUT University-based research centre will investigate exactly what our working culture means for New Zealand.

The Centre for Work and Labour Market Studies (CWaLMS) will lead New Zealand research into analysing the patterns of work during an individual's lifetime.

CWaLMS Director Professor of Employment Relations Ray Markey, from the Faculty of Business, believes the centre's uniquely holistic approach will make it a major global research institute.

Work – paid or unpaid – enables profit and competitive advantage for enterprises and social and economic governance of communities, he says.

"CWaLMS research will focus on the whole picture. It will look at links between parts of a person's life – from birth to education, training to employment, leaving the workplace for child-rearing and returning, to further education and retirement.

"Public policy and individual decisions concerning each of these stages of a person's life affects each of the other parts. CWaLMS brings to these issues a multidisciplinary team of AUT researchers with backgrounds in law, economics, employment relations, human resource management, social policy, sociology and labour history," he says.