Who are you going to trust with your job, Jacinda or Judith?
Defying expectations official labour force data from Stats NZ released today shows that the unemployment rate dropped to 4 per cent from 4.2 per cent in the June quarter.
jobs
The truth behind job numbers
Bruce Munro’s excellent piece in the ODT, looks in to the truth behind the Nats’ job numbers: “It does not take much digging in Statistics New Zealand’s latest Household Labour Force Survey to uncover a growing world of low-paid work, insufficient working hours, financial struggles and unfulfilled lives”.
Welfare is making Kiwis lazy and unemployable
This old chestnut is getting another outing on Stuff today.
Fancy a free holiday to NZ?
Apparently we are this desperate for IT workers. Probably not quite the angle they were looking for, but I guess it did get attention…
Two editorials on immigration
Two very contrasting opinion pieces on racism, housing, jobs, and the immigration debate.
English hammered on ‘druggies’ smear
English will be worried that he got hammered like this, when Key got away with all sorts of insults and lies. And if you think your fellow Kiwis are useless workers you’re doing it wrong.
Bill’s bigoted drug reckons vs the evidence
Some folks Bill knows are telling him stuff and he’s basing immigration policy on it. The facts say otherwise. Bill English is full of shit and it’s time that more media called him on it.
Cadburys Dunedin to close with hundreds of jobs lost
Another blow to Dunedin.
Minimum wage increase doesn’t meet real costs (the CPI is broken)
Any increase in the minimum wage is better than nothing, but National’s increases have not kept pace with the real cost increases (notably housing) faced by low income earners. That is why we are seeing the rise of the working poor, and increases in homelessness and poverty.
Good coverage for Labour’s conference
Good coverage for Labour’s conference, Little’s speech, and the “substantial investigation into the Future of Work”.
Immigration jobs and housing
Until we sort out our housing and unemployment problems it is surely time to reign in NZ’s currently record levels of immigration.
Essential reading – Hickey on immigration
Hickey: “Helping employers to bring in low-skilled migrants instead of investing in new technology and becoming more productive so they can pay local workers more is essentially stunting our productivity and real GDP per capita.”
Taihoa on Immigration?
Winston Peters has called for a slashing of migrant worker numbers and for screening of would be workers based on things like their attitude to women. Is it time for a taihoa on immigration or is Winston just doing a Trump?
Unemployment jumps
After eight long years of National there are almost 40,000 more unemployed than when they came to power.
Job losses everywhere
Brighter Future. Cusp of Something Special. Tell it to the newly jobless.
Job cuts and the future of work
Two headline job losses today underline the importance of Labour’s Future of Work.
Go, technology, inequality, the future of work
Miscellaneous Sunday morning meanderings on technology, inequality and the future of work.
The minimum wage is not a living wage
Credit where it’s due for an increase in the minimum wage – but the gap between that and a living wage keeps growing…
Jobs and wages
Boring stuff about boring old jobs and wages.
Little on TPP: “I don’t support it, we don’t support it”
The news that the TPP is likely to cost 5 to 6,000 jobs in NZ seems to have been the last straw.
Useless on unemployment
“Less debt more jobs” says National’s billboard. Instead we good the opposite. With extra helpings of icing on this Cake of Fail.
Regional Realities.
FYI. The most populous town in Clutha District is Balclutha, which lies 81km south of Dunedin by road. Balclutha’s population, by the 2006 census, was 4,062 (down from 4,137 in 1996). Other towns are Milton (pop. 1,887), Kaitangata (pop. 810), Tapanui (pop. 744), Lawrence (pop. 432), Owaka (pop. 327), Stirling (pop. 309), Clinton (pop. 291), Kaka Point (pop. 201), and Benhar (pop. 96). For a while in the 1980s Balclutha was New Zealand’s most wealthy town, per capita
Fonterra job losses just the beginning?
Terrible news for the 523 Fonterra workers who are losing their jobs – we wish you well.
More jobs gone at Solid Energy – thanks Bill English
113 more jobs to go at Solid Energy’s Stockton Mine. Bill English killed Solid Energy, these job losses are his.
Northland’s ghost jobs
One of National’s big claims in the Northland buy election was that they had created 7500 new jobs in Northland. Lies lies lies.
Labour takes a stand against zero-hour contracts
Zero-hour contracts are the perfect illustration of when “flexibility” in employment relations goes all one way.
Unemployment up
We need a much better analysis of what kinds of jobs and conditions are out there in NZ, crude figures are not telling us enough.
Labour – Raise the minimum wage
Labour is promising to raise the minimum wage to $16.25. It’s the right thing to do. And it doesn’t cost jobs.
Losing your job
David Shearer is not the only one to lose his job this month. It’s quite a list, when you add it up…
Spinning the job market
Audrey Young and Simon Collins should get danger money for spinning this hard on jobs. But at least they’re trying, the best that Key can manage is some waffle about a “fluid market”…
Shearer: Jobs that work for you
This afternoon David Shearer gave a speech about jobs at the Hornby Workingman’s Club. It’s exactly the kind of speech I want to hear from the Labour leader, with plenty of substance to add weight to rhetoric.
Unemployment worse than it looks
Unemployment is up, and the real situation is worse than the figures suggest. Just how many more years of the Nats’ economic “genius” do you want NZ?
1 job 312 applicants
High levels of unemployment in NZ are both a condemnation of the Nats’ bungling of the economy, and a reality check on their perpetual grandstanding beneficiary bashing.
Spin v reality
National have become a very adept PR machine. While not adept at running the country, they’ve become great at running statistics. John Key […]
FIFY
Bill English: “A government can’t have a lot of impact on the job market. It is what it is.” He’s only half right.
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…