Celebrating success: National’s jobs record
Economy
jobs
Nats try to confuse between churn & real job growth
There are quarter of a million jobless people. In a typical quarter, about 250,000 people start new jobs. Does that mean we can eliminate joblessness in a quarter? Of course fucken not, but that’s what National is telling you when they rabbit on about ‘10,000 jobs on Trademe’. To get joblessness and benefit numbers down you need a net increase in jobs,not just churn.
Jobs Summit: Celebrating 3 years of success
Don’t panic. It’s 3 year since the National Ltd™ “Job Summit”. I’m really looking forward to the 3000km Kaitaia-to-Bluff cycle way, the nine-day fortnight, and the $1 billion contribution from the banks plus $8 billion from government to invest in job-producing industry. Can’t be long now before we start to see jobs being created . . . John promised.
Looking for solutions in all the wrong places
So, naturally, the answer is to spend a whole lot of money forcing solo mums to spend their time looking for jobs that aren’t there.
Support MUNZ workers in port dispute
Show your support for the MUNZ workers in the Ports of Auckland dispute, including a picket today from 10am.
Life in the front lines
Hey remember how the Nats weren’t going to cut frontline staff? How’s that working out?
IT isn’t free
The Nats want to replace public service jobs with computerised systems. They claim that this will improve service and save money. Quite apart from the folly of destroying jobs in the current economy, they are likely wrong on both those claims.
An unrelenting focus on jobs
Another rightie at the trough
It’s tough getting a job in the Key economy. There’s 80,000 more people wanting work since Key came to office and 43,000 fewer jobs. Fortunately, there’s always a do-nothing government job going … if you know the right people. Eh, Catherine Isaac? Sure she’s got no qualifications but the ACT leader-in-waiting needs an income.
A brighter future for Maori?
Headline – PM to Ratana: National has made a difference
- Maori unemployment under National: +15,300
- Median Maori income under National: -$78 per week
Are Maori looking forward to another three years of Key’s ‘difference’?
Local board members support wharfies
The travesty of the Port of Auckland dispute is that we have a publicly-owned company trying to slash its workers’ pay so that it can try to undercut another majority publicly owned company that has already slashed wages, the only winners being the foreign shipping lines. Well, here’s some of our representatives standing up for Auckland workers.
Job system & RA in need of reform, not benefits
Other day, Curran asked what they should do with Red Alert. Now, Mallard’s again using it, in conjunction with Pagani on his blog, to try to do an end run around his own party to promote benefit ‘reform’. Leaving aside the fact it’s the employment system, not the backstop, that’s broken, this is more strategic idiocy.
Labour’s jobs policy
Now that we’re all over Nice Mr Key, maybe we can focus on minor details like the environment, the economy, assets, and jobs…
Creating opportunities
The Nats admit that they’ve failed to close the gap between rich and poor. In fact, of course, it’s getting worse. Bill English says they’ve “created opportunities”, which is Tory speak for doing nothing at all.
Treasury on the minimum wage
Labour want to raise the minimum wage to $15. The Nats say that will cost jobs (they want to lower the minimum wage instead). Documents obtained by 3 News show that Treasury think the Nats are wrong. A vote for increasing the minimum wage will not cost jobs.
Jobs for the boys, and girls
None so blind
National’s economic credibility was shot to pieces last week when Fitch and Standard & Poor’s gave them ‘not achieved’ marks. Less than a quarter of the OECD has been downgraded. New Zealand is one of them. The Nats won’t admit there’s a problem. When the statistics are laid in front of them, they say they’re wrong. In the Nats’ war with reality, we’re the victims.
The Nats’ muddle, your job on the line
As National muddles through, refusing to reexamine its economic plans after the shock double-downgrade on Friday, the job losses are starting to pile up again. It’s very reminiscent of the last recession, which we will haven’t recovered from thanks to 3 years of muddling. Can we afford 3 more years? Here’s a list of job losses in the past month.
Chart o’ the day: Muddling through
Muddling through question time
National did not cope well yesterday when their economic record was held up to the light. John Key was all at sea as he tried to dismiss new statistics showing 47,000 jobs have been lost under his watch. He cited instead another statistical series, which he has previously rejected when it showed 56,000 more people are unemployed under National.
The wrong problem
Economist Paul Krugman argues that governments the world over need to wake up to the fact that they’ve been trying to solve the wrong problem.
Hold the front page!
Remember those thundering editorials and opinion pieces chastising Labour for focusing on trivia instead of the substantive issues?
Earning or learning
This afternoon Labour released a substantial policy package targeting youth unemployment. Once again the public is being offered a choice between Labour’s realistic response to a significant problem, and more do-nothing smile and wave.
In praise of collective bargaining
One of the lies at the heart of the Nats’ approach to industrial relations is that negotiating directly with the employer “empowers” the individual worker and allows them to get better wages and conditions. The facts prove otherwise.
Suicide and community
Following the release of data by the Chief Coroner, suicide is once again getting some time in the headlines. Coincidentally, news from Christchurch supports the suggestion that stronger communities reduce suicide rates.
Cuts and consequences
The government reckons it can cut the number of public sector workers without cutting services. That wasn’t the experience of the 80s and […]
Chart o’ the day: drop meet ocean
Bennett and Key at odds?
Bennett and Key are divided in their opinions and their stats, but at least they’re united in their state of denial.
Face facts, Nats
Nats: you didn’t have a job, you’re not really unemployed
In a desperate and heartless attempt to spin their way out of their awful record on jobs, National is getting surreal. First, there’s Bill English claiming that the job you used to have under Labour wasn’t a real job. Then, you’ve got John Key saying that you’re not really unemployed now. I guess it’s all in you imagination. Don’t look to National for help.
Celebrating Youth Unemployment
The tidal wave of unemployment is all the more heartbreaking because we have been here before, last time we had a 1st term National government. But have the Tories learned the lessons of the past? Not a bit of it. Paula Bennett, who had her hand up from the government when she needed it, says there’s “a lot to celebrate” about 58,000 disconnected youths.
Nats refuse to face their record on youth
Having decided to beat up on a few thousand of the most hard done by young people in the country, National is now refusing to acknowledge the problem of disconnected youth that has ballooned under their watch. There are enough young people who aren’t in education, training, or work to fill Eden Park, and Key is literally running from the issue.
Key fiddles while our youth burns
Like the UK, we have a crisis in youth poverty. We don’t have riots, yet, because we lack the population density. There’s no jobs. Increasingly, no hope. Key’s solution? Tinkering. A bureaucratic, easily beatable system where young people on benefits get food stamps and basic costs paid directly. Where are the jobs, Key? Or have you given up?
End slavery in NZ, create 2,500 Kiwi jobs
Next week, a report will reveal the abuse of 2,500 foreign workers used as virtual slaves on ships employed by kiwi fishing quota holders in our waters. By rights, we should have a world renowned fishing fleet. Instead, we let our potential go to waste and employ foreign slaveowners and human traffickers to do the work instead.
Graph of the day: 1 in 20 jobs gone in Chch
120 jobs per weekday lost but nothing to worry about. The market will right itself.
Breeding for a business?
A typical shock horror headline on Stuff in the weekend – “Pre-teens dream of kids and dole”. So what’s going on here, and is it an argument for “welfare reform”?