Posted on 02/13/2005 3:29:14 AM PST by CfromNZ
From the NZ Herald :
12.02.05 by Brian Fallow In the strongest job market for a generation, the unemployment rate has fallen to 3.6 per cent, the lowest among developed countries and the lowest since comparable records began 19 years ago. In the last three months of 2004 the economy created 33,000 new jobs. Over the year, 87,000 jobs were created, Statistics New Zealand reported yesterday. The number of people in work increased 4.4 per cent last year, at the same time as the net inflow of migrants dwindled and growth in the population slowed accordingly. That is the strongest jobs growth for 10 years and its benefits are being felt by sectors of the community which sometimes struggle to find employment - people over 55, the long-term unemployed, women and Maori, all of whose employment statistics have improved. In the latest quarter, employment jumped by 1.6 per cent, a record. The increases were strongest in the service sectors - health, education and business and financial services. The number of unemployed fell to 76,000, down from 79,000 in September and 94,000 a year ago. But most of the increase in employment came from people previously considered not in the labour force. To count as a member of the labour force you have to be employed or available for work and actively seeking it. Most of the increase in employment in the December quarter was among people under 24 and over 55. "It would appear that more so than normal employers have turned to holidaying students to fill the gap between labour supply and demand," said Westpac economist Donna Purdue. The problem is that when the academic year resumes that source of workers will reduce again. Most of the growth in the latest quarter was in part-time jobs, a break from the pattern of previous quarters. That may be more a matter of necessity than choice from an employer's point of view. ANZ chief economist Dr John McDermott said: "The intensity with which employers are searching for labour is very strong. "We see that in the high levels of job ads. And there is a lot of evidence that employers are thinking about alternatives like job sharing. "There are a lot of experienced and qualified women out there who can't work full-time because of other commitments." Business New Zealand chief executive Phil O'Reilly and Employers and Manufacturers Association chief executive Alasdair Thompson agreed that some of the increase in part-time employment reflected employers becoming more flexible in their requirements in the face of such a tight market. Council of Trade Unions president Ross Wilson said it was time to focus on improving the quality of the workforce by "upskilling" and investment in training. Auckland's unemployment rate is below the national average at 3.3 per cent. Coming on top of evidence of a second wind in the housing market, yesterday's figures increase the risk of another round of interest rate rises, but most economists think Reserve Bank Governor Dr Alan Bollard will keep his nerve and leave rates on hold. The job figures are reflected in the advertising pages of the Herald, whose sales director, Ken Leeming, said yesterday that the traditional post-Christmas settling-down period did not occur this year. "It's the biggest it has been in recent history, if not all history," he said of the thousands of jobs advertised in the newspaper.
Ya know Chris, you may not have as much trouble here as you think. At least you aren't pretending to be a conservative.
No chance of that mate, I can be nothing but honest!
You might find that some of us hold some fairly liberal views on a variety of issues. I consider myself to be a conservative libertarian.
For instance I believe that what a person does in their own home is entirely their own business as long as no one else is being harmed. You will also find that our debates on evolution VS intelligent design become quite heated at times. I happent to be quite an enviromentalist myself.
Honestly mate, what are you doing here? Did you come for the news content or do you wish to convert some mindless savages?
I am a mindless savage, so I assume you're comment was intended for Chris.
LOL
Unnngh.
Note to self: No posting before having consumed at least one full cup of coffee.
I'm on pot number two myself. I woke up at 4 AM for some reason. I think it was the dog standing on my chest wagging his tail that woke me up.
LOL.
Today may prove a long one.
I wake up to find one zot thread, another where Jim didn't pull the zot lever yet but really ripped the guy a new one instead and this one.
Well, at least there was that silver star story.
All this and I haven't even unfolded the paper yet.
Well for me personally it is always interesting to talk to people from far away. I like to see how other people on the planet are getting along.
As for leaning left, well, no one is perfect. Maybe if you want to describe what "Left" is to you by specific examples we can convert you to the "Right" Come to the light.....come to the light.....
Chris,
Thank you, for posting from the Canada of the Antipodes, a nation of 4 million people which has disbanded its airforce, navy, and its principles.
Any country that elects a rugby prop forward as Prime Minister irrespective of gender,greets people with the name of an orange juice (Kia-ora),sings a tongue wagging,thigh slapping chant made famous by an English bowls team, and after legalizing prostitution claims moral supremecy over the US has a place in our hearts.
PS. All is not lost, thank you for the Braeburn apples.
What would the unemployment rate in the US be if all undocumented jobs were counted?
braeburn apples? lol , classic response!
and if I may just respond to the prostitution issue, we overturned a law that was not being enforced, and now we can work at reducing risk of diseases and protecting the women who work as prostitutes. It doesn't have to be about morals, I got my morals from my family, not from Helen Clark.
I've seen from others who have tried that, that conversion is not likely round these parts! I came for the news content, and joined as a matter of good manners!
,,, when did New Zealand disband their navy?
Socialists love big government and this shortage of heads in the workforce has given Hell'n Klark a wonderful idea... why not drag women out of their homes, abandoning their children to a flock of underpaid teenage childcare workers a la Soviet bloc institutional style and at the same time, make women "richer". Yes, they can realise their full potential - in supervised employment. Imagine taking on the role of a batch hen in a call centre or something like that and tossing your kid into a dawn to dusk urban tribe management facility. That's a bit left, but that's gotta be OK, doesn't it? - you know, for the economy.
This wholesale crap has been tried in the Soviet bloc for over seventy years. It's tired and pitiful. In theory, people like Klark and Hitlery Klinton will tell you, when it comes to raising children, it takes a village... their sort of village. Helen Klark is in no position to write the manual of motherhood and women voters will tell her that this coming election. She's tried to push the UN's no smacking deal onto Kiwis and they hit out at it. We don't need socialists running our lives and when the average Kiwi wakes up to the fact that all we're getting from the booming econony is only still bread and circuses, they'll look for something a whole lot better. This government has sold the workers of New Zealand out by maintaining a low wage strategy, using inflation as the bogey man, while the banks laugh all the way to the bank as they mop the floor with people like you and me. If you read no news at all, you'd still notice that the banks and the government are at the very top of the pile in reaching what Hell'n is now trying to sell us as she desperately tries to cancel Brash out... the ownership society. She shifts into any space she can to hold power and that's the essence of her zero credibility. Brash, like him or not, states his position and (apart from his outlook on superannuation) doesn't let his position slip.
Over the last three years, Hell'n has spent over $NZ1,5m on travel alone. A small pay rise for her is $NZ12k; the last one was $NZ60k. The servant is the master. Her own department has a staff of around 120 - many of those are ex unionists on very good money, who visit journalists who don't reflect what she'd like to see in print. You'll have to excuse me if I have trouble leaning left Chris, it puts my mind off balance.
obviously. The name calling and snide innuendo make it clear that you disagree with current govt. policy, but they also indicate a unwillingness to look objectively at the current situation. I'm guessing you're a dyed-in-the-wool right winger, but does that mean you have to belittle personalities to get your point across? You make very effective points on how statistics such as these are usually *cough* bullshit *cough*, and I concur on the need for govt. to butt out a little of people's lives here, so why be so petty? Is it because the National Party is run by an unelected (and previously unelectable) banker who had to resort to race-baiting to get his face in the paper? I'm no fan of the smarmy arrogance of many of the current Labour crop, but they represent NZ a ton more than National (Fire the women, get a bully of a Pakeha as your Maori Affairs spokesman - great plan)
Have I got a problem with pettiness or have you got a problem with perception?
You know how to correctly spell Helen Clark's name, and Hillary Clinton's. You choose not to, and it doesn't help back up your opinions at all, it just shows (along with your spurious references to the Soviet bloc) that you have reduced left of centre politics and politicians to a series of caricatures, to help reinforce what you are saying. Brash spoke for no one in that speech but himself, the utopia he wants in New Zealand cannot exist because it involves total ignorance of the way the country as it is today was formed. To him, the Treaty is worthless and needs to be put to one side. Is he trying to finally win a war that the Crown couldn't in the 19th century?
As a sidenote : I understand this is a forum for conservative views, and as stated in my first post, I aim to keep quiet and not be too contentious. I can see I might have to try my hardest in respect to your views (not because of any extremity, just because they are close to home), but I will. I could go to plenty of indy this and social that forums if I wanted to hear my own opinion again, I'm interested in opinions here.
And to close , ;) , you DO have a problem with pettiness, and I admit I am sometimes blinded to the failings of the current govt. by my distaste for the politics of the opposition.
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