Workers worried about job security

Written By: - Date published: 11:42 am, January 12th, 2012 - 33 comments
Categories: employment - Tags:

Eorkmployment confidence has plunged to its lowest level in 2 years, according to the latest Westpac survey. A bosses’ shill says workers are wrong to be worried about their jobs. Unfortunately, the bosses have been promising us that everything’s going to be OK for four years now, and workers have a good track record on picking the state of the job market.

It’s not the level of the confidence index but the change in that level that matches well with changes in employment levels a quarter later (0.42 correlation for you geeks)

If the pattern holds, there is likely to have been little or no job growth in the December quarter and possibly a small decrease in March. Given the economy needs to create 120 jobs per weekday to keep up with population growth, no wonder workers are feeling less certain about being able to get and keep a job.

Dean

33 comments on “Workers worried about job security ”

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  1. randal 1
    12 January 2012 at 11:50 am

    hey if you rich you can afford a bentley or a rolls but if you work then you are on the edge.
    see front page of todays dompost.
    the rentiers are creaming it but the workers are being driven into despair.
    New Zealand has been driven inot banana republic status by the bean counters and rest who want a lifestyle while workers are struggling to survive.
    post modern madness.

  2. prism 2
    12 January 2012 at 11:57 am

    That’s Lifestyle – with a capital L randal. Most of the rest of us have a lower case lifestyle – that is being eaten away letter by letter – down to lifestyl already.

  3. infused 3
    12 January 2012 at 12:10 pm

    What period does this graph even cover?

  4. Lanthanide 4
    12 January 2012 at 12:24 pm

    From the shill link:

    New Zealand was over surveyed and some of the survey results started to feed on themselves, he said.

    I really have no idea what that is supposed to mean. It does sound quite alarming, though.

    • John McKenzie 4.1
      12 January 2012 at 2:11 pm

      It means that the results of previous surveys are influencing subsequent surveys.

      People read the results of surveys and hear that others are worried, so they too become worried. A positive feedback loop.

      • Colonial Viper 4.1.1
        12 January 2012 at 7:51 pm

        Maybe some blindingly upbeat business news stories in the MSM would be helpful?

      • Lanthanide 4.1.2
        12 January 2012 at 9:04 pm

        It seems to be saying two things, actually:

        “New Zealand was over surveyed”

        and

        “some of the survey results started to feed on themselves”.

        I still don’t know what the first one means. I also think the second one is quite possibly bullshit: when you answer a survey, do you remember the previous survey results and are influenced by them, or are you influenced by the 20x business news stories you read about in the past 2 weeks in the newspapers that talk about general business conditions being good/bad?

      • prism 4.1.3
        13 January 2012 at 1:52 pm

        Sounds like the sharemarket.

  5. Tombstone 5
    12 January 2012 at 12:49 pm

    This country is going down the pan and what the fuck is being done about it? Nothing. That’s what. People still insist on National having gotten it right and yet if they had why the hell do all the stats look so fucking bad? How stupid do you have to be to understand one simple little equation – bad does not equal good! Fuck tinkering with the welfare state and worrying about attacking unions and worker’s right – get on with creating some fucking jobs you bunch of muppets! Jobs jobs fucking jobs Mr Key – simple!

    • Monty 5.1
      12 January 2012 at 1:07 pm

      actually tombstone the majority think the Nats have it right – and that is why they were re-elected on 26 Nob 2011. We also like what the Nats are going to do, such as welfare reform, instead for example – the Labour policies which were going to reward people on the benefit by paying them $70 per week more, and spending $16 billon the country did not have. (plus the $25b of the Greens and $40b that Winston was promising.

      The nats are struggling with the legacy of the Clark years, massive deficits not of their making (earthquakes and WFF for example) and amassive international financial meltdown. But progress is being made in this difficult economic climate, and in time the benefits of the slow restructure of the economy will benefit all NZ

      • Spratwax 5.1.1
        12 January 2012 at 5:02 pm

        Here we go-the blame it on Helen Clark broken record-Fuck off! How about Nats tax cuts for the rich costing $300million a week!The Clark years were surplus years. It’s the old right wing trick- borrowing money because of tax cuts to the rich then saying they’ll have to make cuts to government spending-i.e. social spending and sell off strategic public assets ( to the rich, of course) to ‘balance the budget’. An old trick pulled every time a National or Conservative Government gain power.

        The transfer of wealth and resources to the wealthy elite- pure and simple.. and if you’re not part of this elite, then I personally feel sorry for your naivety, your gullibilty, and of course your inferiority complex, which drives your need to aspire to and support the elite, even though you haven’t a hope in hell of joining their ‘club’. Pitiful!

      • higherstandard 5.1.2
        12 January 2012 at 5:12 pm

        Are you taking the piss Monty ?

        We’ve had a term of National and Key and apart from a few minor tweaks I haven’t seen a great deal of difference.

      • Tombstone 5.1.3
        12 January 2012 at 7:45 pm

        What a load of total wank and you know it. This country is fucked and Key is in charge – grow a set you spineless bastards and start taking some of your party failings on the chin for once because every time you mention Helen it just sounds like gutless whining to me. If the books were left in such an appalling state as you lot keep on claiming then what made National think giving massive tax cuts to the rich was (a) smart economics when that money would ultimately have to be borrowed and (b) good for the country as a whole? How has it made for a better NZ? No one I know is any better off. In fact most people I know are worse of now than what they ever were under Labour and ps don’t go using the earthquakes down here to justify your failed policies because to me that’s just a fucking insult.

      • Colonial Viper 5.1.4
        12 January 2012 at 8:01 pm

        actually tombstone the majority think the Nats have it right – and that is why they were re-elected on 26 Nob 2011.

        The minority think the NATs have it right.

        That’s why they failed to gain a one party governing majority.

      • Frank Macskasy 5.1.5
        13 January 2012 at 12:31 am

        Monty – have you been drinking???

      • Frank Macskasy 5.1.6
        13 January 2012 at 12:33 am

        Monty – boy, you been at the sherry bottle again?!?

      • prism 5.1.7
        13 January 2012 at 1:54 pm

        The Nobs sure took over in the Nov elections (by a slim margin say 9!)

    • Hami Shearlie 5.2
      12 January 2012 at 5:59 pm

      It’s just too hard to think about creating jobs for the “underclass” – I’m too busy sipping pineapple cocktails, and floating around in my olympic size pool – But Aloha anyway – Love John-John xxx

  6. beachbum 6
    12 January 2012 at 1:05 pm

    Hard graph to follow – it depends on the timelines. If you go from the big dip to the latest part and ignore the last dip, then the trend shows some improvement but I guess it depends if that last dip continues or not.

    Surely if employment numbers improve, then people will have more confidence in staying employed. But then it depends what employees views are influenced by – e.g. MSM can be alarming at times, it may not just be job growth but there does appear to be a fair correlation in the above graph.

  7. randal 7
    12 January 2012 at 4:37 pm

    of course workers are worried.
    national gutted the productive economy in the 1990’s and now anyone not employed in primary production is surplus to requirements.
    meanwhile the nashnil gubmint is busy redistributing as much wealth as it can to its hangers on and the religous klingons so they can retain power and not do anything.

  8. mik e 8
    12 January 2012 at 7:15 pm

    more spin is their policy

    • mik e 8.1
      12 January 2012 at 7:50 pm

      Retrenchment is the rights answer to everything that’s the way a business is run during a recession depression now.So right wing business friendly govts think that’s the way to run a country wrong !
      Retrenchment leads to a downward spiral that keeps going down.

  9. warren 9
    12 January 2012 at 9:33 pm

    Why are the port workers being denied their aspirations?
    Where is the Port management’s optimism that good times are just around the corner?
    Haven’t they been listening to our Prime Minister? We are aspirational and optimistic remember!
    Though I must confess to a little concern that “step change” seems to have disappeared from the PM’s lexicon, I remain positive that Key is committed to his aspiration and optimism.

  10. Vote Labour? 10
    12 January 2012 at 9:34 pm

    Bus drivers in the tourist industry having seen Helen Clark’s globalised property market and subsequent over development are now seeing their share of the work decline while Chinese speaking (as in born in China) bus drivers take over. They work under poor conditions (eg share rooms) while relying on tips and commisions to prop up very measly wages.

    [lprent: You are already under a permanent ban, and this pile of wishfull bullshit just puts you into autospam. Talk about stringing crap together with no understanding. ]

    • Shona 10.1
      12 January 2012 at 10:43 pm

      Que ?? Helen Clark was responsible for the globalised property market? WTF! What over development ? Long bow you’re drawing there Vote Labour.
      Anyone with half a brain knew the tourist boom would die out due to peak oil if nothing else.
      Tourism never was and never will be a replacement for manufacturing, or public funding of science research to cite 2 examples of stimulating the economy constructively and with a long term visionthat will keep our young people here.The wasted lives of so many of the young people I have taught and watch grow up breaks my heart most days. Underachievment is the norm in order to secure employment. And the Nactional scumbags couldn’t give a rats arse about native born kiwis they want dumbarse Chinese tour bus operators here undermining our working conditions, you moron.

  11. Eduardo Kawak 11
    12 January 2012 at 11:13 pm

    Why do we need a graph to show that when there are less jobs available, people are less secure about jobs? Utter nonsense.

  12. Jum 12
    12 January 2012 at 11:48 pm

    Perhaps Key forgets that when his plan to get rid of unionised workers i.e. empowered workers, goes ahead as Gibson is doing now, those workers will be pretty pissed.

    His next attack will be against the teachers – already started, and the beneficiaries (does that include the government beneficiaries?) – and will start a chain of events, of strengthening of Kiwis – I hope so. Finally, people might start defending one another’s right to job security and fair pay in New Zealand, instead of being conned by Key’s individual responsibility crap which just means weakened worker rights. People are far more responsible from a base of job security and a higher self esteem in which a country’s government is supporting them, not trying to divide and destroy them.

    I saw that Herald photo of the port worker’s wife and children there to support him – that’s the fallout of these power games by Gibson and his ilk. One husband possibly out of work, one wife and 4? young children hoping that if the port worker continues to work at the port on the new ‘flexible hours/shifts’ they can pay for their shelter, their power, their food, their clothing, their schooling, their transport…

    That is 6 people in one family affected by Gibson and the backers behind his plan to break down workers’ job security. Gibson is intending to destroy the futures of 329 more plus the family members of those 329 men. With a family of say a wife and two children that is another 1000-plus people affected by this nasty little operation.

    This is not about efficiencies; this is not about flexible productivity – we know that.
    This is about the engineering of New Zealanders to accept whatever they are given and to remove the independence of New Zealand as a sovereign country.

    So far Key is succeeding; his masters will be pleased.

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