An official information request into the truth behind our employment statistics have revealed how hollow those surface numbers really are.
We already know that the statistics the Government have recently rejigged to remove people looking for work on the internet glosses over the true depth of our unemployment rates, but when you dig deeper, the numbers themselves are even more concerning.
The June 2016 unemployment rate claims 2,454,000 persons are employed.
However, of those 2,454,000 persons, only 1,550,000 were actually employed for 40 hours per week.
Only 1,217,000 of those 2, 454, 000 actually have permanent jobs.
And 903,000 work less than 40 hours a week.
We are a country with hollow jobs propped up by part time work.
Welcome to the Precariat.
Thanks for this very revealing OIA response, Frank, I wonder, do they not use spelling and grammar checks and so forth at MoBIE, as the response does not seem to be all that well written.
Or have the educational “achievements” so often praised by Minister Parrot, ahem Parata, resulted in poorer standards, while they do pass more under NZEA?
Sorry, thanks to Martyn, I misread the post, and thought it was another one by Frank.
I take it as a compliment, Mike! 🙂
Well I work 37.5 hours a week and earn a >100k salary so should I be considered part of the precariat?
That depends entirely on what you do, doesn’t it?
You could be on short term contract, at a high hourly rate, working those hours to mesh with your employer’s needs.
You could still be precariat… In fact, if you work for a wage, salary, or contracted amount – you’re working class because you can be ‘terminated’ – regardless of your present cushion against adversity.
It’s a hard one to grasp: pay is no indicator of permanence or value.
So this is the post-truth era in New Zealand, I guess. Lies and dodgy stats. I might as well read a Donald Duck comic book to get my information. NZ Stats is certainly doing the Micky mouse routine with us.
Key has created the seriousness of the damage within New Zealand and suddenly buggered off. English has stepped up to the plate – how worse can it get?
NZ is living through Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath.
+100% – good post
Lets get past housing to the real cause of NZ demise and the radical 1990’s employment ‘reforms’ that have devastated our country and pushed the locals into the Gig economy and Precariat while faking it is all working by fake statistics and an immigration ponzi scheme.
The last thing we need is foreign run contracts deciding how few jobs go to Kiwis, on a non permanent bases, and the number of foreign workers to be imported (however temporary)! Big contracts should go to Kiwi companies—even if it is bloody Flee(t)c(h)ers again.
I am unemployed but not listed in the stats. I am not listed because I am over 65 and receive super. However, the super doesn’t cut it. I pay rent which is a big chunk out of my super. I need to work to survive. There are many hundreds of over 65s like myself physically and mentally fit and healthy, trying to pick up casual work here and there to make ends meet somehow.
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