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The OECD has released its 2013 Wellbeing Index and Australia rates well on most measures, with off the chart scores on environment and governance (owing mostly compulsory voting). Over the past five years, Australian well being has fallen only slightly:
There’s no master index but the breakdown of indicators is a guide:
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There is one consistent finding for Australia that stands out. It’s the only measure we fall into the bottom two decliles and that’s “employees working very long hours”.
There was also this on work/life balance:
There was no apparent reason why we’ve started working so hard paid and unpaid. Housing measures were not significant though that would be my guess. But one other reason might be this:
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Whip those bludgers!
About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific's leading geo-politics and economics portal.
He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.
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