I feel it dreadful to be out of work: Tom Purcell and William Farrell and the Melbourne Labour Market 1875-1908

Abstract

Thomas Purcell and William Farrell, two Irish-Catholic unskilled labourers, left diaries of their working ives in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Melbourne. These very rare personal accounts reveal dramatically different experiences of the labour market: Purcell's permanent employment, home ownership and retirement pension contrast with Farrell's intermittent employment and propertyless state at death.