Prof.dr. Irma Mooi-Reci
Labour Market Expert
imooireci@gmail.com
Welcome to my website!
I am a Professor of Labour Sociology and Social Policy at the School of Social and Political Sciences (SSPS) and Adjunct Professorial Fellow of the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, at the University of Melbourne. Since 2024, I serve as an Editor of Social Science Research, a journal dedicated to publishing quantitative research. Prior to this role, I served as a Deputy Editor of the renowned journal Gender & Society (2019-2023) and was Head of Sociology at the University of Melbourne (2017-2020).
Over the past 15 years of my academic career, I have rigorously researched labour market and career dynamics to understand how disruptive events such as - unemployment, underemployment, early disadvantage and the changing nature of work - shape labour market inequalities for workers and their families. My work has been recognised through various prizes, grants and visiting fellowships including visiting positions at the Nuffield College, Oxford University (2017), the University of Madison, Wisconsin in 2010, 2011 and 2012, the Federal Institute for Population Research in Wiesbaden, Germany (2022) and the Centre for Politics of Inequality, Haifa, Israel (2023).
My work is presented at major international conferences and I am regularly invited to participate in workshops and events. My work has appeared in various leading journals, including Human Relations (FT-50 journal), Social Science Research, European Sociological Review, British Journal of Industrial Relations, and Social Forces. I am also a co-author of the award-winning book Market Research using Stata.
In addition to research, I am passionate about teaching. I am a seasoned lecturer, supervisor, and mentor and have led and designed various graduate and postgraduate programs. Read more about my teaching approach here.
Join me on
New! Australian Research Council Grant - The Consequences of Non-Standard Employment on Fertility (2021-2024)
This new project aims to investigate the role of temporary, casual, and part-time paid work (non-standard employment) on Australians’ fertility behaviour (childbirth intentions and outcomes). It expects to use high-quality longitudinal data and engage in novel quasi-experiments (policy changes) to identify new causal mechanisms and pathways between employment types and fertility.
Expected outcomes include a novel interdisciplinary theoretical framework, the most up-to-date empirical evidence on this topic in Australia, high-quality research outputs and training, and clear work and family policy recommendations. This should significantly benefit families, communities, governments and organisations to lift productivity.
Australian Research Council -Discovery project (2016-2022):
Intergenerational Effects of Joblessness
This project, which is currently completed, aimed to investigate the ‘ingredients’ – mechanisms, channels, drivers – that linked early childhood exposure to parental joblessness with (early) adult education and labour market outcomes. Findings from our research have helped in the refinement of theories on intergenerational transmission of disadvantage, and have provided important insights to break cycles of disadvantage.
See Publications to learn more about the findings from our large-scale study on the intergenerational transmission of joblessness in Australia.
Impact