The Working Holiday Maker Scheme and the Australian Labour Market
By the end of 2000, Australia had reciprocal working holiday maker (WHM) arrangements with eight foreign countries which permitted young (18 to 30 years of age) holiday makers to reside in Australia for a period of up to 12 months and to supplement their funds through incidental employment.
The eight arrangement countries were the United Kingdom (UK), the Republic of Ireland, Canada, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Netherlands, Malta and Germany.
In 1997, the Joint Standing Committee on Migration (JSCM 1997, p xviii) recommended that the Government undertake further research on the labour market impact of WHMs.
This paper, produced in 2002, aims to estimate the effects on the Australian labour market of the existing WHM scheme and to make some estimates of the effects of extending the scheme to other countries. In doing so, this paper examines the profile of WHMs and their employment activities.