The purpose of this survey is to evaluate the Employment Initiatives Program (EIP) in terms of its labour market, economic and social aspects. The Program was a short-term job creation scheme set up by the Victorian Government in 1982.

File A contains details about all of the EIP projects. Topics include: region; funding information; number of jobs funded; whether the project proposes to recruit employees from any particular disadvantaged groups and if yes what group(s); costs of the project; functional area (general community development, health, education, etc.); nature of work and training; and, classification of target labour.

File B contains basic details of the participants employed on EIP projects. Topics include: extent of EIP support for position; age; sex; marital status; whether participant has dependent children; type of EIP position; duration of employment; source of EIP recruitment; country of birth; length of residence in Australia; whether the participant has a disability; whether the participant is Aboriginal; number of hours worked, gross wages and amount of tax paid for last week; and, information on Commonwealth subsidies.

File C contains responses from the interviewees. Topics covered include: employment history; details of EIP recruitment; details about the time employed on an EIP project and attitudes to the experience; details of current workforce status for the employed, the unemployed and those not in the workforce; financial and personal history; and, overall impressions of the EIP project.

Background variables include sex, date of birth, place of birth, whether first language in English, disabilities or illnesses that prevent the respondent from doing certain kinds of work, education information, and employment history.

File D contains responses from respondents (File C) who were reinterviewed. Topics covered include: the date that employment on the EIP program ended and the reasons; details on current workforce status for the employed, the unemployed and for those not in the workforce; details of labour market experience after EIP project and before the respondents current activity; information about financial circumstances; and, the respondent's general impressions about the EIP job creation program.

Under the program, just under 3300 people, of whom about 3100 had been unemployed for 6 months or more, were employed on 514 job creation projects. The projects ran for an average period of 6 months between late 1982 and late 1983.

The IAESR was contacted to evaluate the program in terms of its labour market, economic and social aspects.

The two data files included here include details of all projects, 85% of participants, and the results of two surveys: one survey of a sample of 90 participants and a follow-up survey, 12 months later, of the same sample.