Making sense of the (un)employment stats: Census 2013

22 comments on “Making sense of the (un)employment stats: Census 2013 ”

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1. Rogue Trooper 1

   12 December 2013 at 11:51 am

   The number of folk over 65 employed, up
   The number of young people unemployed, up
   One Third of working-age adults not employed
   40% of people self-identify as ‘professionals’ and ‘managers’
   Around 15% of people work in retail, or wholesale, trade (selling consumption)
   Extraction industry does not appear to be the employment panacea the Tories tout it to be.

   It’s a recipe for productive success and improving balance of payments! 😉 All that is required now is more roads for the ‘managers’, ‘professionals’ , shop-keepers and consumers to get around on.
   • Macro 1.1

     12 December 2013 at 1:19 pm

     These are the sort of numbers that indicate how badly our economy is performing – it’s an economy for about 45% of the population, with the top tier getting the majority of the goodies a few slaves to deliver them, and “f**k” the rest.
     • Rogue Trooper 1.1.1

       12 December 2013 at 1:21 pm

       the ‘D’ in GDP does not represent Depth of analysis by gum.
   • Macro 1.2

     12 December 2013 at 1:19 pm

     These are the sort of numbers that indicate how badly our economy is performing – it’s an economy for about 45% of the population, with the top tier getting the majority of the goodies a few slaves to deliver them, and “f**k” the rest.
2. ghostrider888 2

   12 December 2013 at 12:01 pm

   and that’s the economic Five-year plan sorted. 😎
3. blue leopard (Get Lost GCSB Bill) 3

   12 December 2013 at 12:02 pm

   Youth unemployment is a massive government failure and ensuring there are decent jobs for young people should be the absolute priority for any government.

   It is interesting to note that this failure is occurring throughout the world.

   What this will be leading to is large numbers of the new generation not feeling welcomed or part of society.

   What are politicians problem on this issue? Are they too well paid to realise what damage this causes to young people’s lives and society in general? Politicians have to be seriously disengaged with the effects of unemployment to be ignoring the problem in the way that they are.

   I dislike the emphasis on raising the retirement age while statistics in youth unemployment are so seriously high.

   Education is getting seriously unaffordable for some – it might pay to ensure those who do not come from wealthy backgrounds have education as an option aswell.
   • karol 3.1

     12 December 2013 at 12:10 pm

     It should be noted that there was a bit of a decrease in the youth unemployment rate under the Clark government. Whether that trend would have continued to happen if Labour had had another term in government, …. who knows? But the rate has gone up again under Key’s watch.

     I agree that raising the retirement age is a bad proposal, and that more attention needs to be given to youth employment, training and education.
     • blue leopard (Get Lost GCSB Bill) 3.1.1

       12 December 2013 at 12:27 pm

       Yes Clark’s government made a substantial dent in unemployment (taking into account their methods to hide some of it) There was a real feeling that ensuring there were jobs was being taken seriously – there were increasing opportunities in evidence.

       Of course voters were then fed a load of crock by the spinners who went on to get into government about how ‘Labour spends too much’ – misinformation – without any analysis what they are spending money on and how this expenditure is benefitting society socially as well as financially.

       It is about time that people in this country learned some simple cost benefit theory and do the analysis themselves so they would stop believing the bull we are consistently fed.
     • leftriteleft 3.1.2

       12 December 2013 at 1:57 pm

       I agree that raising the retirement age is a bad proposal, and that more attention needs to be given to youth employment, training and education.

       Does anyone remember the Apprentice System.
       It turned out Tradespeople.

       Big problem now.
4. Lanthanide 4

   12 December 2013 at 1:12 pm

   Karol, people who aren’t in the labour force include stay-at-home-mums and stay-at-home-dads.

   It’s therefore not surprising and hardly “staggering” that 1/3rd of adults are not in the labour force, or that 60% of women aren’t in the labour force.
   • Tiger Mountain 4.1

     12 December 2013 at 1:48 pm

     This whole scenario needs new official definitions of work and the introduction of a UBI. People do so much unpaid and underpaid work of a socially useful nature that does not get credit from bare statistics. I include community, caring, domestic, sporting and environmental tasks here. Slash DoC and the weeds still need busting, mum has chronic health problems? some one has to (regularly) look after her.

     WINZ has done such a good job of demonizing, harassing, obfuscating and denying their “clients” status and entitlements that many people will just not enter an office knowing the uncaring bureaucratic machine and community stigma they would have to face. Growing numbers of regular beggars in my West Auckland neighbourhood are not there because they think it is a great career path.

     People actually in work often need more hours, the working poor. Or better conditions and pay. Others kid themselves they are in ‘glamour’ industries–film, fashion, tourism, gourmet end food and beverage, but find it is precarious contract work barely at minimum wage, pay your own GST etc.

     So the stats are very disturbing particularly if you are a teenager. The answers?
     • A UBI for all citizens
     • Sit on WINZ hard and go out of our way to provide real social security
     • Can the Reserve Bank Act
     • Give Unions back unprecedented in recent decades, rights, to organise across industries to obtain fair wages and health and safety at work, tilt the playing field in the workers direction
     • Can WFF in work tax credit, make the middle class get off their butts and join a union to raise their income
     • Create some redundancies in Parliament next election on the Tory side
     • Reflate the public sector and public works, can all these dubious PPP arrangements
     Thats just for starters, are you listening Labour? Greens and Mana certainly are.
     • Rogue Trooper 4.1.1

       12 December 2013 at 2:51 pm

       +lots Tiger Mountain
     • Arfamo 4.1.2

       12 December 2013 at 2:55 pm

       +1 TM
5. ghostwhowalksnz 5

   12 December 2013 at 1:22 pm

   Looking closer at the Professionals occupation grouping is this

   Chief Executives, General Managers and Legislators
   Farmers and Farm Managers
   Specialist Managers
   Hospitality, Retail and Service Managers
   Arts and Media Professionals
   Business, Human Resource and Marketing Professionals
   Design, Engineering, Science and Transport Professionals
   Education Professionals
   Health Professionals
   ICT Professionals
   Legal, Social and Welfare Professionals

   http://www.stats.govt.nz/methods/classifications-and-standards/classification-related-stats-standards/occupation/output.aspx
   • Rogue Trooper 5.1

     12 December 2013 at 1:31 pm

     wot? no Gardening ‘Professionals’?, Cycling ‘Professionals’? Blogging ‘Professionals’?…Talk about a grass ceiling 😉
   • karol 5.2

     12 December 2013 at 3:23 pm

     Thanks, ghost. That’s actually the subgroup of “Managers”, which are put at the top of the tree,

     and some of the Professional categories, category II.

     Full classifications here.

     From the excel sheet, “Managers” include,

     Chief Executives, General Managers and Legislators (includes Chief Executives, General Managers and Legislators)

     Farmers and Farm Managers (includes Agriculture farmers, Fruit or Nut Grower, Apiarist and more)

     Specialist Managers (includes Advertising, Public Relations and Sales Managers; Business Administration Managers; Construction, Distribution and Production Managers; sports administrators)

     Hospitality, Retail and Service Managers (includes ; Education, Health and Welfare Services Managers – such as child care centre managers & uni faculty managers; )

     “Professionals” include:

     Arts and Media Professionals

     Business, Human Resource and Marketing Professionals (includes: Accountants, Auditors and Company Secretaries; Financial Brokers and Dealers, and Investment Advisers; Human Resource and Training Professionals; Information and Organisation Professionals; Sales, Marketing and Public Relations Professionals)

     Design, Engineering, Science and Transport Professionalas

     Education Professionals (includes School Teachers; Tertiary Education Teachers, uni lecturers),
     Health Professionals (a load of categories including surgeons, GPs, nurses, midwives, naturopaths….)
     ICT Professionals
     Legal, Social and Welfare Professionals (includes lawyers, student counsellors, ministers of religion, social workers, historians, interpreters, …

     And so it goes – such a broad range of people included in “professionals”.
6. Tiger Mountain 6

   12 December 2013 at 4:09 pm

   Paper shufflers (incl. digital equivalents thereof), ticket clippers and professional torturers (e.g. change managers, Human Resources, peer reviewers) seem to make up a good number of these professionals and managers. They are basically gatekeepers and functionaries for the people with the real power.

   The tendency for everyone to be a vice president of something as in the US really is a ruling class ‘slice and dice’ tactic to stifle collective thought. Sure we rarely work in factories of hundreds of people now, not due to some brave new world where everyone wears a black top and geeky glasses and works contract in IT but because corporates shift manufacturing offshore and our own government contracts out railway workshops, part of the vital infrastructure, and generally puts a sinking lid on public sector works. And year zeros state housing! Sure some lovely wee niches exist for startups that leave most of us untouched until they make the news for being sold on which is usually capital outflow adding to the current account deficit.

   The upshot is manual workers are now quite likely to be involved in the service sector for example such as the “companion animal” industry–dog walkers, doggy day cares, mobile pet grooming, animotels etc.
   Is this a bad thing? Well not in its self, people have to try and do something as all those lawn mowers did in the 80s thanks to mass layoffs courtesy of Rogernomics. But that is the nub, the macro settings of the economy which have been set a course to run like a pirate ship for 30 years now. Arrrrghh!
   • Arfamo 6.1

     12 December 2013 at 7:56 pm

     +1. I like that analysis TM. Depressing, but I think it’s on the button.
7. Rogue Trooper 7

   12 December 2013 at 7:53 pm

   often appears, in NZ anyway, that Everybody wants to rule the world
8. Digmen1 8

   14 December 2013 at 10:07 am

   This “adults dropping out of the workforce” is happening all over the western world.

   Its not just a NZ thing.

   Production is / has / will keep shifting to Asia due to high western wages and costs.
9. Mucha 9

   14 December 2013 at 4:59 pm

   $442m paid to contractors to do WINZ case managers job annually and pushing people into lame industry casual jobs like hospitality or cleaning jobs with the mandatory “Wage Plus” subsidy costing $72m annually kinda tells you that they’ve run out of ideas and think the free market with subsidies will fix it??

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1. John Key's patchwork 'job machine': user pays - The Standard: posted on 28 December 2013 at 8:09 am

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