Australia’s privatized employment services system doesn’t help people find work. Instead, thanks to reforms first introduced by the Labor Party, it punishes welfare recipients with a bureaucratic maze of “mutual obligations.”
Source: Australia’s Unemployment System Is a Marketized, Bureaucratic Nightmare
So for several decades, the bureau has supplemented the official unemployment figures by also publishing the number of people underemployed – those part-timers who’d prefer working work more hours. The latest figures show an unemployment rate of 4.2 per cent, plus an underemployment rate of 6.6 per cent. Thus it is true the official unemployment rate of 4.2 per cent isn’t as good as it looks. It does understate the proportion of people who aren’t able to find as much work as they want.
Source: Can we believe the great news on unemployment? Yes and no
Large job agencies who dominate Australia’s privatised employment system are enjoying a boom of record profits, and even a takeover spree, while their disillusioned job seekers complain of churning and profiteering. Meanwhile, those in government on both sides of the political aisle are calling for reform. In this special investigation, Stephanie Tran reports on the failure of Jobactive.
Did you know you’re counted as “employed” if you work 1 hour a week? When you first hear that, it can sound shocking. It can make you suspect the government’s manipulating the unemployment data to make the labour market appear in better health than it is. But let me explain why it’s not a problem. It’s a perfectly logical definition for “employed”. Then, after I’m done with that, let me show you some ways in which you can be led astray by the government. It regards the unemployment rate itself.
Source: You’re counted as ’employed’ if you work one hour a week, but why is that a problem? – ABC News
When I was younger and in severe financial stress, I observed first hand how people didn’t notice their privilege. When expressing my dissatisfaction with my lack of money, a friend advised me to just forget about it and go out. I reminded her that I just explained that I had no money. “You mean you have NO money?” No, I replied, nothing till I next get paid. Ok, at least I was going to get paid and that would enable me to keep my head above water for long enough to take a breath, so I guess even I had a privilege that I didn’t see. All of which brings me to the recent changes to JobSeeker.
When You Call Me Privileged, It’s Just The Politics of Envy! – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Australia is right behind America walking in Trump’s shadow, (ODT)
via Millions in US face financial ruin as emergency jobless benefits end
Though trust in the government may not be especially high right now, almost across the board, the experts I spoke to said the government needs to be part of any meaningful solutions to our broken employment system: from equalizing pay to establishing comprehensive wellness protections and weaving a social safety net strong enough to catch workers when they fall.
EmploymentSchawbel is incredulous that companies will, for instance, expand paid leave on their own — or at all. “It’s bigger than corporations. Governments have to promote it and force companies to do it. But companies own our government, so they won’t.”
Orkin, too, has doubts, but they’re laced with optimism. “My hope — I speak from a place of hope but not entire confidence that this will all happen — is that companies will pay ever more attention to these essential workers and be ever more thoughtful about designing policies to support them. And it goes well beyond financial support (though that’s a good place to start). It goes deep into health, wellness and creating environments and workplaces that are nurturing, and creating space for creativity, for personal connection — the things that make us human.”
There’s one thing she is sure of. “Many of our clients are [asking], ‘Who are we going to be on the other side of this?’ It will not be who we were going in.”
via The Coronavirus Reveals Everything That’s Wrong With Work In America | HuffPost Australia
They will help to produce more things we don’t need and even more waste while increasing unemployment and increasing the myth of necessary growth. If we produced a single non polluting global car one colour it would probably cost less than $5000 and reduce polution at the same time. What’s more it could be a Merc. (ODT)
How we measure and talk about unemployment matters. Yet many politicians, pundits and the public remain fixated on pure data, measured by a near 60-year-old International Labour Organisation standard – if you work for at least “one hour” a week you are “employed”.. Yet the idea that unemployment is 5 per cent and employment is equal to one hour’s work is laughable. Real fake news.
Any new definition of employment must be based on the ability of a citizen and her or his dependants to earn a “living wage”, not some outdated “minimum wage”. Rather, it should be a version of our nation’s famous 1907 Harvester judgment, that a “fair and reasonable” wage must take into account the “normal needs of the average employee regarded as a human being living in a civilised community”, crafted for this precariat age.
Our job statistics are broken. It’s time to #changethestats.
Just listen to Morrison Lie (ODT)
via The one-hour week and other damned lies in our job statistics
A 65-year-old New York City cab driver from Queens, Nicanor Ochisor, hanged himself in his garage March 16, saying in a note he left behind that the ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft had made it impossible for him to make a living. It was the fourth suicide by a cab driver in New York in the last four months, including one Feb. 5 in which livery driver Douglas Schifter, 61, killed himself with a shotgun outside City Hall.
The need to unionize against the modern slavery of piece work and piece jobs without benefits. (ODT)
The growth in secondary jobs has not just been confined to professionals. The economy experienced its strongest secondary jobs surge since June 2014 last year – driving the number of people with two jobs to 891,000, up from 779,000 in 2010.
More than 50,000 were added between March and September 2017 alone, according to Tuesday’s figures, which for the first time showed the volatile growth in secondary jobs by industry on a quarterly basis
ONCE AGAIN, the mainstream media and the business press are shielding Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s Government by failing to report Australia’s jobs situation in the global context.
As Independent Australia has observed consistently, a strong boom is underway in trade, corporate profits and jobs.
Virtually all developed countries and the majority of developing countries are enjoying steady workforce expansion relative to population.
Australia is one of the conspicuous laggards.
Of the richest 60 countries in the world, 45 experienced stable or improved rates of unemployment over the last three months. Only 15 – including Australia – saw the jobless rate worsen.
via Australia’s unemployment: It’s worse than you’re being told
Warren Buffett likened unemployed workers to animals that are helpless to avoid car crashes, and said the government must do more to help those displaced by competition from overseas and technology.
Source: Warren Buffett says people who lose their jobs have become ‘roadkill’
Australia has one of the highest levels of part-time work anywhere in the OECD.
Source: Underemployment skyrockets to 1.1 million Australians
Both left and right are promoting the idea of a basic wage for everyone, currently on trial, as a solution to the new world of work
Jobs of the future may not have stable hours, holiday pay, sick pay, or pensions, the Work and Pensions Secretary has said. Damian Green described the trend in employment practices towards the so-called “gig economy” as “exciting” and said the changes had “huge potential”.
In contrast to persistent moves in Australia to reduce welfare entitlements and restrict eligibility, Dr Adnan Al-Daini evaluates the concept of
AN INVESTIGATION has uncovered a massive taxpayer rip-off perpetrated not by “dole bludgers” sponging off the unemployment system — but instead by the agencies tasked with finding people jobs.
Source: The real ‘dole bludgers’: Four Corners report exposes fraud
Low payments, waiting periods, and disempowering those without work does nothing to help them get a job. It’s cruelty without purpose, writes Owen Bennett.
Source: Our Punitive Welfare Policies Crush The Unemployed And Keep Them Out Of Work – New Matilda
“Today’s ABS Labour Force release is further evidence that the jobs market strengthened towards the end of 2014.
The Coalition Government is delivering our Economic Action Strategy to generate jobs and grow a more prosperous economy.
Today’s release shows that employment is growing, unemployment is coming down and more people are actively looking for work.
37,400 new jobs were created in the month of December, building on the 45,000 new jobs created in November and the unemployment rate fell to 6.1 per cent.
In 2014, 213,900 new jobs were created and jobs growth averaged around 17,800 per month; more than triple the average monthly jobs growth in 2013 of around 5,000 a month…
“We have delivered on our commitments to get rid of the job destroying carbon and mining taxes, we are assisting small businesses to grow by removing red and green tape, and we are getting major projects underway with environmental approvals worth one trillion dollars; projects that will provide tens of thousands of jobs far into the future…
“2015 is the year of jobs and families – the Government will continue to focus on job creation because it’s good for individuals, it’s good for families and it’s good for the economy”
Eric Abetz
Yep, you’ve got to hand it to those Liberals. A year of “jobs and families”. That explains why the 2014 Budget was so unfamily friendly. It just wasn’t the year for them, but thankfully 2015 is their year.
Of course, they’ve already got off to a flyer on the jobs front: Unemployment is coming down. It’s 6.1%! We haven’t seen a figure like that since… Well, August, 2014. If it continues to fall at this rate, it’ll be back to those pre-Budget days when it was 5.8% by… Let’s see, if we assume that the rate of the fall from November to December is a trend and we extrapolute into 2015, then, why, we’re back to 5.8% by January. And we’ll be back to what it was under Labor before the Ides of March. Excellent!
Now, don’t go listening to the doomsayers that tell you taking the figures from November all the way through to December isn’t a trend. They clearly don’t understand that the figures are from the start of November all the way through to the end of December. A whole sixty one days! That’s more than most of the Liberals’ policies have lasted.
Speaking of policies, much has been made of the effect of dropping the carbon tax, but, as you’ve probably noticed 2015 hasn’t been as hot as 2014. While I don’t wish to get into a debate on climate change using facts and figures, or indeed any data that doesn’t suit my argument, I would just like to point out that the “warmists” have no way of explaining this pause in global warming.
And, what’s more, it occured after the removal of the carbon tax. – a tax which sent lamb roasts soaring to $100 and wiped Whyalla off the map. So those people who made exaggerated claims about what removing it would do, should now apologise for their alarmist nonsense! It just shows how effective their direct action policy is!
Yep, Australia is again open for business. The only slight dampener is that the renovations to The Lodge are taking so long.
“Some $3.19 million worth of work on the 88-year-old, 800sqm, 40-room Georgian-style home began in September 2013 and was due to be completed by mid 2014. It was commissioned by the former ALP government, but on December 12, the Abbott government signed off on changes to the contract, adding another 12 months to the completion date and upping the price tag to $6.38 million.”
I guess this is another example of Labor not meeting a deadline and going over budget! Thank goodness the Liberals are in power so they can double the budget and increase the deadline to a more realistic two years for a renovation project. (If you bet anyone before the election that Tony Abbott would never make it into The Lodge, I hope you haven’t paid out.)
Still perhaps this one of the major projects providing thousands of jobs that Abetz was talking about.
Yes, I’m looking forward to the “job and families” 2015 when unemployment dips to under 6%.
And, of course, if it doesn’t, that’ll just be because we’ve encouraged all those bludgers to start looking for a job, so naturally the participation rate will rise, which could lead to the unemployment rate rising. But that’ll just be a technical rise. We know that more people are working than ever, even if some them are on 457 visas, or Chinese nationals working under our new free trade agreement.
The main thing is that Australia is open for business!
Woohoo! Unemployment has hit 14 Year High. No need to worry about ‘Work Choices’ anymore, because there will be no Jobs available. #notfittogovern #LNPSociopaths #blockedbybishop
***Blanket exemption from 457 labour market testing for all Korean nationals
Korean Australian Free Trade Agreement (KAFTA)
• Exemption from labour market testing for all Korean nationals in the standard 457 visa program
• Comes a day after unemployment levels hit a 14 year high
• Employers in Australia will no longer have to seek qualified locals to fill vacancies in the skilled trade,
nursing and engineering occupations
• Employers will no longer have to prove none could be found, before 457s are approved for Koreans
• Labour market testing is permanently banned in all other 457 occupations from now on
Our beloved Government had initially refused to tell the public the truth about what it was giving away
in the KAFTA. It’s now been revealed the Government is giving labour market testing (LMT) exempt
status to all Korean nationals in the 457 visa program.
This is another attack on Australian workers’ job security. These blanket 457 visa concessions should
not even be in Free Trade Agreements, they have nothing to do with international trade.
Furthermore, KAFTA is binding on future governments, so no Australian government in the future can
require LMT for Korean nationals in the 457 visa program.
The revelation also raises great concerns that the China FTA will feature similar exemptions.
The Abbott Government won’t come clean on the detail of the China FTA but all indications are it is
headed in the same direction.
It simply beggars belief that with rising unemployment, and thousands of young people looking for
their first full-time job, the Government would make it even easier for employers to bypass qualified
local workers.”
Similar language to describe access by temporary overseas workers has been applied to both agreements.
The Korean FTA uses the term “contractual service suppliers”, and the Abbott Government has said that
the China FTA will give “guaranteed access” to Chinese workers who are contractual service suppliers.
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