Unemployment Up
August 7th, 2008 at 1:56 pm by David FarrarThe number of people unemployed rose by 7.000 in the latest Household Labour Force Survey. This saw the unemployment rate go up to 3.9% (a two year high). It is forecast to make 6% by the Reserve Bank.
The number of people in the labour force and employed also increased. I am not surprised as I thought the fall in the last quarter of 28,000 was too extreme, and that rebounded this quarter.So the economy may not be as weak as some have thought.
Tags: HLFS, unemployment
August 7th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
UNemploment up? You mean PhilU has gotten out of bed?
Vote:August 7th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Employment measures inputs while productivity measures outputs.
Employment is useful for convincing the voters that the Govt is doing a good or bad job. Productivity (or rather increases in productivity) is useful for making sure NZ is a good place for my kids to live.
Vote:August 7th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Must be all the right wing zealots leaving their existing jobs hoping for a cushy new number working for national , if the unthinkable happens.
getstaffed ,the productivity would go through the roof if a large oil field south of NZ was found and produced oil at $120 a barrell, while everything else remained unchanged
Vote:August 7th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
“Must be all the right wing zealots leaving their existing jobs hoping for a cushy new number working for national”
BAHAHAHAHAHA!! Yeah, because that defines the typical National supporter! We just LOOOOOVE expanding the bureacracy! Government jobs for all!!
You idiot.
Vote:August 7th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
ghostwhowalks is perhaps pooing his pants at the thought of losing his pointless government job.
Oh and there can be many savings made by national . Who needs womens affairs, or maori affairs ? who needs a childrens commissioner, or race relations commissioner? The electricity commissioner could probably go too , the govt have installed a puppet there anyway so the point of the job is gone.
Vote:August 7th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
The “unthinkable” would be that all the labour party toadies would have to go and get real jobs I supose.
Vote:August 7th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Kimble must be the only national supporter left who believes the policy that has been spouted out:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10505290&pnum=0
National Party deputy leader Bill English said Mr Williams should resign or be sacked.
“Mike Williams has been caught red-handed saying one thing behind closed doors and another thing to the public,” he said in a statement.
fat chance English will follow his own advice after being caught ‘red handed’
Mr English said Labour suffered from a “culture of deceit”.
3 times trumps one , and Williams was only talking about some pamplets.
Mr 20% will only bring disaster for national, cant wait
Vote:August 7th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
GWW – fat chance English will follow his own advice after being caught ‘red handed’
Please explain how Bill English was caught red handed saying something different in public? National policy is not to sell state assets in the first term. Bill said he thought that KiwiBank might get sold eventually. These are completely compatable positions. Mike Williams you might recall totally denied that he said that he thought it was a ‘damn good idea’ to rort tax payer funded brochures, when in fact he did (and that is against the law too).
Vote:August 7th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
And yet, IRC my now fuzzy economics study (which involved more than 101 and wasn’t all 20+ year ago) is still below the natural rate of unemployment.
As someone who has no employment security at all, I can say, my work has slowed, but it doesn’t appear to be grinding to a halt.
Vote:August 7th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Mike Williams was caught agreeing labour should break the law. Thats why he should have been sacked
Vote:August 7th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Dream on Ghost, at the end of the day it is only the political tragics like us that are taking any notice of this at all, I took a bit of a straw poll at work today and with everybody that I spoke to during the course of my day and not one of them was concerned about the events that have arisen from the National party conference.
The sad thing is Ghost that they are all used to the crap that comes from the current govt and by and large do not bother listening, the number one concern they all gave me was the rising cost of living and how that alone as going to decide where their vote went.
Nearly all (18 out of 20) said they would vote for the Nat’s because they will get bigger tax cuts.
Face it Ghost, its game, set and match to the Nat’s, take your medicine like a good little socialist and crawl back under that Rock of yours for the next nine or so years.
Vote:August 7th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
The country is definitely in recession now. No chance of Labour being able to win a fourth term in office. Nice.
Vote:August 8th, 2008 at 12:32 am
Read my lips OECD – Cullen said the credit crunch wouldnt affect NZ, there is no recession in NZ.
Vote:August 8th, 2008 at 1:29 am
ghostwhowalks2
I’ll take it slow GWW2, please feel free to ask more questions if I’m not making sense.
No, it’s not right wing zealots leaving their existing jobs hoping for a cushy new number working for national. It’s however quite possibly precipitated by people you would describe as right wing. The employers, the business owners. You see it’s a sad reality that unemployment rates have f##K all to do with employees and a lot to do with the number of jobs available. I know this is unconventional thinking for a partisan left wing person, particularly union people, but it’s actually true.
There has been a fair few businesses shutting down, large and small. I’m sure there will be more to come if interest rates don’t come down quickly of if the economy stays in recession for another one or more quarters. People shutting up shop and releasing workers adds to unemployment, it’s seldom driven by people leaving jobs on a whim as you might think.
Vote:August 8th, 2008 at 3:58 am
National’s prospects of becoming the next Government in three months UP.
Vote:August 8th, 2008 at 6:11 am
Most right supporters would rather pickle their own testes than work for the gummint, in WGN, wearing polyester walkshorts and fawn socks.
Vote:August 8th, 2008 at 6:55 am
I think the govt has put too much emphasis on the Dairy industry without off-setting that success by investing in other industries. An example is the recent meat processing plant closures. Where mutton is now less profitable, so has gone to the wall. Even dairy-related industries have seen closures because the Dairy industry has rationalised for profitability. Even last years, NZ industries would close or relocate overseas, and even the PM would say ‘That’s the way of the world’ or Dyson – ‘It’s still ok because we have ‘full’ employment.’ But now, these closures due to compliance costs, difficult exporting environment and lack of continued investment into modernisation, are starting to pinch – lots of Dairy money wasted, to fuel an imaginary good-time belch.
Vote:Communities fucked over, thrown on the dole, smartarse politico commentators sat in heated offices making smug pronouncements about how wonderful the government is. Funny thing is, those people still suffered even when the PM was telling us to suck it up.
wankers.