unemployment

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Heh

Written By: - Date published: 1:31 pm, November 1st, 2011 - 10 comments

None so blind

Written By: - Date published: 7:24 am, October 7th, 2011 - 81 comments

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

Written By: - Date published: 6:43 am, October 3rd, 2011 - 43 comments

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.

Muddling through question time

Written By: - Date published: 7:10 am, September 29th, 2011 - 23 comments

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.

Chart o’ the day: drop meet ocean

Written By: - Date published: 11:01 am, August 24th, 2011 - 17 comments

Economic cycle

Written By: - Date published: 10:52 am, August 20th, 2011 - 24 comments

Prime Minister John Key has reacted to growing fears that the world is slipping into a second round of financial crisis and recession before it has recovered from the first one by boldly opening a 180km cycleway through the King Country. Part of a $50m cycleway project, it is expected to boost the economy by $5-$20 quadrillion, according to the PM.

Bennett and Key at odds?

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, August 19th, 2011 - 60 comments

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

Written By: - Date published: 1:22 pm, August 18th, 2011 - 33 comments

Nats: you didn’t have a job, you’re not really unemployed

Written By: - Date published: 10:08 am, August 18th, 2011 - 36 comments

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.

Epic fail

Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, August 16th, 2011 - 64 comments

Like most of us, Fran O’Sullivan was expecting so much more from the Nats at their conference…

Daddy State vs Youth

Written By: - Date published: 2:06 pm, August 15th, 2011 - 72 comments

National aim to score political points by attacking a small number of 16 and 17 year-olds, and taking away their autonomy. But they’re missing the real-world point – of the tens of thousands of young unemployed who need the jobs that National aren’t providing. That’s the real crisis.

Economic Management

Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, July 13th, 2011 - 34 comments

We can expect a lot of economic rhetoric in the lead up to November from our political leaders. What does history suggest with respect to two key economic indicators: production and employment?

Chart o’ the day: fire at will

Written By: - Date published: 11:54 am, June 9th, 2011 - 40 comments

Fire at will was meant to help young people into work, wasn’t it?

This brighter future

Written By: - Date published: 9:19 am, May 9th, 2011 - 6 comments

Re-run: Unemployment up, productivity up

Written By: - Date published: 2:42 pm, March 16th, 2011 - 9 comments

As I predicted in this post last year, productivity has risen sharply in the latest stats but for all the wrong reasons.The Herald gushes “NZ employers squeeze more out of fewer workers” but that’s fundamentally wrong. We’re getting less out of even fewer workers. “Labour input” fell 4.3%, while GDP fell 0.8%. Why anyone would think this is a Good Thing is beyond me.

Protest @ WINZ today!

Written By: - Date published: 10:19 am, February 22nd, 2011 - 89 comments

Aucklanders – the fight back against the worst recommendations in the Rebstock report starts now. Join us – Auckland Against Poverty – in a picket, 2pm today outside Work & Income, Sel Peacock Dr, Henderson.

Whitcoulls

Written By: - Date published: 8:19 am, February 20th, 2011 - 32 comments

Whitcoulls has been here since forever — “one of New Zealand’s most famous and enduring retail chains”.  But the chain is in big trouble, and it’s sad to watch the ongoing wreck.  Let’s hope that Whitcoulls can be saved before hundreds more workers and families in NZ lose their livelihood to the moribund economy.

Community Max, another Nat failure

Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, February 16th, 2011 - 35 comments

Because it’s failed ideology prevents it from leading job creation, National came up with ‘Community Max’. Pointless make work schemes have flourished. At the end, more participants are back on the dole than would have been if they had never left. A waste of time and money. Just like boot camps with a higher reoffending rate than home detention.

Why Revolutions Stumble and Fall

Written By: - Date published: 12:28 pm, February 15th, 2011 - 28 comments

Democracy doesn’t suddenly magically appear as though from a conjurers hat. We know that, right?  So why are revolutions seeking democracy  D.O.A?

Govt is not there to make your life better – Bennett

Written By: - Date published: 12:14 pm, February 11th, 2011 - 56 comments

The nice thing about David Bennett is he says what other Nats are smart enough to keep quiet. Remember his rant against the minimum wage? But he out did himself with his speech defending the appalling record of the National government. It turns out the brighter future Key promised was a lie – the National government “is not there to make your life better”.

National fiddles as NZ burns

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, February 10th, 2011 - 8 comments

8,000 more unemployed in Q4 2010, and 1,000 more on the dole in January; New Zealand headed to a douple-dip recession after a year of anaemic growth; an average wage rise in 2010 of 1.9% with inflation of 4%. And a government focussed on manipulating statistics instead of coming up with an economic plan.

Key’s long-term unemployment record

Written By: - Date published: 3:32 pm, February 9th, 2011 - 38 comments

John Key has taken a swing at Kiwi workers who have lost their jobs thanks to the bankers’ recession and his economic mis-management. Key claims people are choosing to be long-term beneficiaries “even though work is available to them”. But the jobs aren’t there and that has caused long-term unemployment to explode under his watch.

Key tries ‘come hither’ eyes to attract jobs

Written By: - Date published: 1:37 pm, February 4th, 2011 - 98 comments

PM Key says we shouldn’t lose confidence despite rising unemployment. Pledging to go ‘on the pull for jobs’, Key said he will prostitute NZ to any multi-national corporation and Kiwis should be willing to work for free. The PM was last seen smiling at himself in a mirror, muttering ‘Hey baby, wanna come back to my place and clean it for $12.75 an hour?’

Unemployment Up

Written By: - Date published: 12:08 pm, February 3rd, 2011 - 23 comments

The December quarter employment statistics are out.  And there’s a big jump up to 6.8% unemployment.  11,000 people lost their jobs, 8,000 became “unemployed” and 3,000 others left the workforce altogether.  The labour force participation rate (the number of people of working age, working) is down to 67.9%.

Unemployment – No Story Here

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, January 8th, 2011 - 65 comments

Youth unemployment is 19.8%, but is there much coverage of a shockingly high number?  That’s 1 in 5 young people Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEETs to the initiated); higher than the OECD average.

The family problem

Written By: - Date published: 10:07 am, December 25th, 2010 - 37 comments

Kiwis frequently like leading the world in the many ways that outmatch our ‘weight’. I wish we weren’t leading the world in this one.

We have one of the worst youth unemployment rates in the world as The Economist shows.

Dole numbers still rising

Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, November 10th, 2010 - 10 comments

While the unemployment rate continues to jump around like mad, the dole numbers are telling a consistent story. And it’s not a good one. Every month this year has been worse than normal. In October, the number of Kiwis on the dole fell by 0.1%, that’s compared to a 1.1% fall last October and an average 3.1% drop each October under Labour. This October there were 4,800 more people on the dole than last October. Didn’t you say we were coming out of the recession strongly, Mr Key?

One in ten Kiwis jobless or underemployed

Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, November 5th, 2010 - 11 comments

At 6.4% unemployment appears to be falling, slowly. But it also looks to be above where it was at the start of the year, when it supposedly plunged to 6.0%. Economists are viewing the wildly fluctuating numbers sceptically. Whatever precisely is happening, with one in ten working age Kiwis unable to get work, it’s not time for dancing in the streets.

Tourism: revenue flat, employment down

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, October 29th, 2010 - 41 comments

I’m confused by the up beat coverage of the tourism figures released on Wednesday. Have people actually read the numbers? Tourism is in decline. Employment and revenue are still going down, and the next time oil prices go through the roof, the situation will get worse. No cycleway will change that.

Tax Cuts or High Wages?

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, October 27th, 2010 - 17 comments

At the last election we chose tax cuts and unemployment instead of stimulus and stability – which was the more ambitious, high wage way to go?

National are not fulfilling their government’s core reason for existence: closing the wage gap with Australia.  No, we’re fast going backwards on that score, and it’s predictable: high unemployment causes low wages.

Why the Right is worried 1: Economy

Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, October 18th, 2010 - 35 comments

Yesterday, former National media trainer Paul Holmes and former National Party President Michelle Boag attempted an extraordinary hatchet job on Phil Goff on Q+A. No analysis of the real policy divide that Goff and Labour with National carved out at the national conference, just attack – why? The economy, policy, Key’s fading brand, and the polls.