KEY POINTS:
The economic news just keeps getting better for the Government. Unemployment is at a 27-year low, and official numbers have plummeted by 35 per cent in the last year alone.
Michael Cullen couldn't be happier with himself. In the past eight months he's managed to get himself a $6.5 billion surplus and even his two superannuation funds raked in $700 million more than budgeted. The Government net asset worth increased by $11.7 billion in this time. On this basis, every New Zealander's collective worth has increased by over $4500 in just 38 weeks. Do you feel wealthier? Probably not, but it's nice to think our national assets are increasing at the same time our employment is soaring.
Even the cynics and political opponents couldn't find much to criticise when the Government announced that unemployment figures have plummeted by 82 per cent since the Labour Party came into power. Our economy has had strong growth and unemployment of 28,000 is astonishing. This is the lowest since Robert Muldoon was the boss.
Maori unemployment has dropped to fewer than 10,000. When the National Party lost the election in 1999, one in six Maori were on the dole. The only criticism that National were able to fire off was the net increase of 39,000 on sickness and invalids' benefits.
Given that the long-term unemployed dropped from 70,000 to 12,000, I suspect most of the chronically unemployable have merely been moved from one benefit to another. Let's face it, some people are never going to be offered a job. When you combine the numbers on the sickness, invalids or long-term unemployment it still is a net 20,000 fewer people on benefits.
The official unemployment rate is now 3.7 per cent, the lowest in the OECD and effectively full employment. In Australia, it's 4.5. So all this is very good news. No one can now claim that Labour can't manage the economy as well as National.
Let's face it, the economy from a business perspective is in good heart. Reserve Bank attempts to slow economic growth by lifting interest rates can't stop business expanding.
During the 1980s, unemployment and the economy were New Zealanders' major anxieties. Now we work ourselves up over kid smacking and state funding for our politicians. We should count our blessings.
But I have one serious doubt. The definition of "employed" was quietly re-jigged some time ago to include anyone who is paid for even one hour a week. I will never be conned into believing that someone who is employed for a few hours a week is actually "employed" in any real sense.
What the official figures disguise is that the itinerant workforce of part-time and casual workers is booming at the expense of secure fulltime jobs. What should be a concern is that a third of these workers desperately want more hours and more certainty.
Many workers I have met work extraordinarily irregular hours, and often have to go to WINZ to get a top-up of their wages. I'm not sure where these people fit into the statistics.
And you would think all this full employment would be creating a bonanza for workers and if we took big employers at face value we would assume they were all desperate to keep their staff and pay them well. Alasdair Thompson from the Employers and Manufacturers Association lamented the fact that skilled workers were moving overseas for better money.
Over at Business New Zealand, Phil O'Reilly claimed low employment was a problem for employers who were reluctant to sack skilled staff because they might not get them back when they needed them later. At the same time they have the cheek to moan about the lack of staff loyalty.
Even with the economy and employment booming, wages barely keep up with inflation. Prices for essentials have rocketed, yet employers are still driving down employees' benefits and job security to maximise their record profits.
What is a little disappointing is that many employers' attitudes have not changed even when good employees are apparently at a premium. They see them merely as a cost and disposable.
For example, Air New Zealand - the national carrier whom we taxpayers bailed out to the tune of $1 billion - announced last month a record profit. At the same time, they were sacking skilled and long-serving staff, exporting jobs to a cheaper overseas company. Interestingly the Government, which holds the majority shareholding in Air New Zealand on our behalf, was silent.
Similarly, Television New Zealand announced this week they are dumping 60 news staff. Even the parent company of this paper have proposed contracting out some of the production work at some of their publications.
So it's a bit rich when employers claim a worker and skill shortage. Somehow workers have been negligent in not getting themselves properly trained to be of service to them when wages are going backwards and job security is zilch.
It's great news unemployment is down. What's surprising is that the so-called worker shortage seems not to have changed employers' behaviour. On paper there is full employment. But the reality is that outsourcing and casualisation of fulltime jobs is increasing - and that's the real worry.
