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Written By: Marty G - Date published: 12:32 am, March 2nd, 2010 - 22 comments
The total pay packet fell for Kiwi workers last year and it will get worse in coming years. Aussie wages continue to rise, their unemployment is falling. If Key is serious about catching Australia he needs a full employment policy. Instead, he will keep doing nothing.
Written By: the sprout - Date published: 3:00 pm, February 15th, 2010 - 5 comments
Julie Fairey at The Hand Mirror has posted a follow-up on the curious tale of how National’s Dr Jackie Blue “had told the Herald that Nathan’s job ended because of an office merger with new National MP Sam Lotu-Iiga, when actually they both still have separate offices, in different suburbs.”
Joan Nathan you will recall, is …
Written By: Michael Foxglove - Date published: 2:25 pm, February 4th, 2010 - 28 comments
Unemployment is now 7.3%. The highest since the 90s.
What, you don’t remember that decade? Well, you’re in a for a treat.
Govt says population rise behind high unemployment
Social Development Minister Paula Bennett pointed to an increase of 14,500 people in the working age population.
“There are simply more people joining the workforce, which is outstripping job growth,” …
Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:35 am, January 18th, 2010 - 131 comments
Traditionally, the minimum wage was set at around 60-67% of the average wage. During the Muldoon era and the 1990s, National let the minimum wage stagnate, with inflation eating away at its value. It declined to as low as 34% of the average wage under Muldoon and 41% under Bolger. Both the 4th and 5th Labour …
Written By: Guest post - Date published: 11:37 am, December 23rd, 2009 - 25 comments
While most Kiwis are getting ready for Christmas there are tens of thousands who will be having a hard time this holiday season because they were made unemployed this year. And most of these workers will have had no redundancy protection to tide them over.
That’s not good enough. It leaves workers and their families …
Written By: The Standard - Date published: 11:34 am, December 5th, 2009 - Comments Off
Alister Barry’s other classic documentary on the effects of the Right’s neoliberal revolution on every day New Zealanders, In a Land of Plenty, is also now online thanks to NZ On Screen. Check it out below:
Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:57 am, December 3rd, 2009 - 19 comments
Anyone who thinks that our economic troubles are over because the economy grew 0.1% is delusional. And no-one seriously believes that we don’t have to act quickly to stop the rising levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. A Green New Deal is as necessary now as ever.
The Greens have come out with the second …
Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:02 am, November 25th, 2009 - 3 comments
National has only come up with one employment policy to counter the recession. No, not the cycleway – ‘job ops‘. It works like this: employers get given $5,000 for employing a young person in an entry-level role. To qualify, the must be new and would not exist if the Job Ops subsidy was not available, …
Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 11:52 am, November 18th, 2009 - 8 comments
For the first time ever I wholeheartedly agree with Fran O’Sullivan’s column. In today’s Herald she writes about the government’s inaction over youth unemployment and what it will mean in terms of a lost generation.
The percentage of young people who can’t find jobs snowballed after the global economic crisis hit New Zealand.
But (so far) the …
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 9:29 am, November 17th, 2009 - 9 comments
We’ve talked a lot about the negative effects of unemployment on the unemployed and their communities (depression, crime, family breakup, poor health, poor educational outcomes for children etc) but there’s another group that benefits from fewer people being on benefits – people with jobs.
Check out the graph. At the end of the 1990s, there was …
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 11:30 am, November 11th, 2009 - 7 comments
I’m all for cycle-ways but excuse me if I don’t get all silly over John Key knocking a post in the ground in Waikato and declaring his first cycle-way under way.
The reality is the Waikato River Trail was being built anyway. In fact, it is already over half built. So this $3 million isn’t actually creating anything …
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 1:30 pm, November 9th, 2009 - 35 comments
I’ve never quite understood why David Farrar, who is after all paid to do statistical work, insists on performing transparent statistical tricks on his blog.
Yesterday, he did a post with figures on the number of 15-19 year olds with jobs. He argued that it showed removing the youth rate and giving everyone the same minimum …
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 10:18 am, September 28th, 2009 - 18 comments
How would you like to work a four-day, ten-hour per day week, rather than a five-day week?
A number of organisations in the US have adopted the 4-day week to save energy costs during the recession, and it’s working so well for employers and workers that it may become permanent. A survey I saw mentioned on …
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 10:20 am, September 25th, 2009 - 3 comments
Colin Espiner: “For some reason that I don’t quite understand, unemployment usually continues to rise at the end of recessions, and there’s normally a lag time of something like a year before it falls.”
I can help with that one.
When a down-turn starts, employers generally don’t know how bad or how long it will be. Being uncertain, …
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 3:00 pm, September 11th, 2009 - 20 comments
A coalition of unions, Labour, the Greens, the Maori Party, and community groups has come together to support Darian Fenton’s Redundancy Protection Bill.
There’s a website, facebook group, petition, and other ways you can get involved. The Bill, due to be debated later this month, would set a minimum level of redundancy protection for all …
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 10:48 am, August 17th, 2009 - 39 comments
Jon Stewart talks to Austan Goolsbee, Chief Economist for President Obama’s Economic Recovery Board:
“when you’re looking in the face of the next great depression, that’s not the time to tighten the belt”
Now, I’m not as optimisitc as Goolsbee about the long-term outlook but thank goodness the governments of the major countries didn’t go down the …
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 5:11 am, August 7th, 2009 - 33 comments
Who said this?
“if we continue with National’s policies over the next three years we will be able to create another 115,000 jobs and bring unemployment under 6%. These are realistic targets…Labour’s claim that it can bring the unemployment rate down to 3% is also a hoax”
It was Bill English in 1999. Of course, after Labour …
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 9:19 am, July 27th, 2009 - 11 comments
Like New Zealand, the UK has had a deluge of ‘green-shoots’ news from the corporate media and the financiers desperate to jawbone the economy into recovery. The spin became so pervasive that the consensus among economists was the UK economy would have shrunk only -0.3% last quarter and would be growing by now.
It shrunk -0.8%. …
Written By: Eddie - Date published: 5:04 am, July 21st, 2009 - 88 comments
It was excellent to see Phil Goff laying down the gauntlet to Key yesterday. He announced Labour’s policy to temporarily relax partner means testing for the dole and promised a recession response package. On the same day, Key’s big achievement was noting the Hillary family had settled their dispute with Auckland museum. Goff is saying …
Written By: rocky - Date published: 8:02 am, July 16th, 2009 - 17 comments
I disagreed with Helen Clark in 2007 when she first suggested raising the school leaving age, as I don’t believe the mainstream school system is suitable for all young people. However I did largely support Labour’s 2008 policy to ensure all school leavers under the age of 18 are in some kind of education. If …
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 8:24 am, July 14th, 2009 - 46 comments
As you know, things are tough in the job market at the moment.
The firm figures won’t be out until later this month but unemployment has grown by probably well over 50,000 so far this year. The number of the dole has shot from 37,000 in March to 50,000 now and is growing at 1200 a week. …
Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 5:48 am, July 1st, 2009 - 104 comments
Why does this myth that the private sector is better persist in this country? At every turn, the bosses show themselves to be a bunch of greedy, short-sighted half-wits.
Take Line 7. Outsourced their production to China. Built their business model on the assumption that the NZD would stay high. Didn’t hedge. NZD, predictably, falls. Business model stuffed. Owner …
Written By: Eddie - Date published: 5:26 am, June 26th, 2009 - 69 comments
I remember just over a year ago, Helen Clark announcing that the number of people on the unemployment benefit had fallen below 18,000 for the first time in 30 years. The roomful of Labour supporters erupted into applause.
Contrary to the crap you hear from righties, Labour top priority is making sure everyone who wants one can …
Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 1:14 am, June 24th, 2009 - 25 comments
Yesterday, Goff asked Key for some evidence that his government is doing something to save jobs. Key squirmed and squirmed.
Goff: What have the three main ideas that emerged from the Job Summit, and that he promised would save or create thousands of jobs, delivered in actual job numbers?
Key: I would say that the Job Summit …
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 11:30 am, June 16th, 2009 - 71 comments
National’s line is that they are doing ‘everything possible save jobs and keep people in employment’. Are they living up to the promise?
Not even close.
The other week Paula Bennett was asked in the House how many jobs had been saved by initatives from John Key’s ‘Jobs Summit’. She proudly replied ‘223′, then corrected herself ‘303!’. …
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 1:34 pm, June 9th, 2009 - 23 comments
There was nothing in the Budget for productivity. Education, the foundation of producitivty, was actually cut when you take into account inflation and population growth. There was a bit more for a few more roads but shaving a few minutes of the commute has no effect on productivity.
Yet Bill English is very keen for us …
Written By: Guest post - Date published: 1:29 pm, June 4th, 2009 - 7 comments
Before the election National’s “Employment & Workplace Relations” policy set out the principle of “building opportunity for all”, and the need to “Expand job opportunities for those having difficulty getting work -like young, inexperienced people or new immigrants.”
The Job Summit talk-fest paid plenty of lip service to the importance of jobs:
Key: [Jobs] count for real …
Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 8:04 pm, May 29th, 2009 - 28 comments
The Budget is already costing jobs.
AirNZ has announced that it will be cutting flights. 80 jobs will go. The EPMU has said it will fight hard for the jobs. It’ll be tough to save them all.
Why is AirNZ cutting the flights? Not enough passengers. AirNZ was hoping for something for tourism in the Budget to …
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 9:34 pm, May 21st, 2009 - 50 comments
Duncan Garner had to do a balance piece against David Shearer because he has been at the forefront of covering the implosion of Melissa Lee’s campaign. Garner says someone “deep within” Lee’s campaign pointed him to an interview where Shearer says keeping employment high, particularly among migrant communities is important because when people don’t have …
Written By: Guest post - Date published: 11:00 am, May 8th, 2009 - 6 comments
A reader has spotted that Hide wasn’t the only minister telling porkies in Parliament yesterday. Fortunately for Bill English, he’s too smart to breach privilege:
“The Government is concerned about anyone losing their jobs; that is why we will do anything we can to help people to keep secure the jobs they have or to get …
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