Job growth is strongest in business and financial services, but this is largely offset by falls in manufacturing, agriculture, forestry and fishing. Of most concern is the sharp rise in the Maori unemployment rate to 18.2% compared with 15.9% a year ago.

We include our regular Statistics That Matter feature in this issue of The Jobs Letter.

Source Statistics from StatisticsNZ

Source The Dominion 19 November 1997 "IRD's phones ring on and on"

The five approved organisations so far include the Tauranga Employment Trust, the Hawkes Bay Volunteer Centres' Trust, the Hawkes Bay Community Trust, Sport Auckland and South Seas Training and Development Institute.

Employment Minister Peter McCardle says these organisations were picked because they have well-established links within their communities, and "... links especially with job seeker groups who may have become alienated from mainstream sources of employment assistance." McCardle says he is acutely aware of the extra strengths that many community organisations have in assisting unemployed job seekers, and the CBO initiative is aimed at capturing that strength.

McCardle: "Keeping unemployed people active in their communities is one of the most exciting aspects of the Government's employment strategy, and something I am totally committed to. Our unemployed will benefit with new skills, and the pride in knowing they are helping to make their communities a better place while they look for work, and their communities will benefit from the many worthwhile projects that will be completed..."

Source press statement from Hon Peter McCardle 18 November 1997 "Community Broker Organisations Up and Running"

Sue Bradford says she is hearing a common argument from community organisations thinking of becoming CBOs is that they will be able to negotiate with their local Department of Labour to ensure that participation on the programme will be voluntary.

Bradford: "The AUWRC believes community groups should not become CBOs because it is a compulsory scheme, even if some unemployed people volunteer to go on to it. We don't believe that NZES will accept a negotiating position that doesn't contain the element of compulsion. The whole thrust of the Coalition's strategy on unemployment is to widen compulsory work for the dole. The current expansion of Community Taskforce is the first step towards their stated goal of having all unemployed people on compulsory work or training ..."

Source Mean Times Vol 8 Issue 4 November 1997 "Community Asked to make Workfare happen" and conversations with Sue Bradford in Taranaki during public meeting 13 November 1997

The report finds that workfare programmes can increase participation in work and work-related activity, but also finds there is little evidence to suggest that workfare leads to reductions in welfare receipt or expenditure.

NZCCSS: "The availability of jobs is the single most important factor in determining the number of people on welfare ... There is little research to support the assumption that welfare dependency is the problem. Rather, research suggests that poverty and lack of opportunity are the real problems to be addressed..."

The NZCCSS says it is not convinced that workfare will prove to be an effective or fair response to unemployment and the social and economic costs associated with it. It's recommendation to other community organisations and prospective CBOs: do not to support or participate in an employment strategy which does not meet certain minimum standards.

It has developed a code of minimum standards based "...on our research into effective employment policies and our belief in the basic dignity and worth of all people." The Jobs Letter includes this code of minimum standards as a special feature in this issue.

Copies of the NZCCSS report "Workfare a discussion paper" are available from NZCCSS, P.O.Box 1937, Wellington phone 04-473-2627 fax 04-473-2624 email nzccss@ihug.co.nz

Source "Workfare a discussion paper" prepared for NZCCSS by Karen Adams, Research and Information Officer of NZCCSS, October 1997. NZCCSS, P.O.Box 1937, Wellington phone 04-473-2627 fax 04-473-2624 email nzccss@ihug.co.nz

Source Employment update Spring 1997 published by NZES

Source National Business Review 14 November 1997 "Job hunt easier for all"

Source UBI newsletter November 1997, edited by Ian Ritchie.

The main elements agreed:
-- each government will, within five years, guarantee to provide a job, training place or other activity to every unemployed person before they have been out of work for 12 months - or six months in the case of the young unemployed.
-- a commitment to increase the proportion of unemployed people receiving training to 20 per cent, twice the current average.
-- agreement to increase the availability of investment capital for new businesses, to cut red tape and lower taxes which discourage employment.
-- each member-state will prepare a national action plan detailing how unemployment can be reduced. The effectiveness of these will be assessed at the Vienna summit in twelve months time.

The EU leaders agreed that individual member states would retain responsibility for employment policy, but an element of peer pressure would be introduced to ensure schemes were being monitored at a Europe-wide level.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair welcomes the deal as a way of bridging traditional divides between old-style state intervention and deregulated, laissez-faire economics. Blair: "There is a third way... and this summit sets a new direction for the way we tackle competitiveness and employment issues in Europe. This direction is very much investing in people, in small businesses, in skills and technology, rather than costs and burdens on employers..."

Sources Sydney Morning Herald 24 November, 1997 "Failure on jobs casts doubt on single currency" by Geoff Kitney in Berlin; Reuters 22 November 1997 "EU Heads Pledge New Start for Young Jobless" By Ian Geoghegan; Source ABCNEWS.com 21 November 1997 "EU Leaders Promise Jobs" by Paul Ames of The Associated Press; Irish Times 22 November, 1997 "Creating Jobs For Europe"

The EIB bank will lend Holland 45m Ecus (the new EU currency unit) for job creation projects in the health and education sector. Spain gets 196m Ecus for its university campus projects. French and Belgian projects are expected to be announced soon. The bank will also set aside one billion Ecus over three years to back riskier lending to small and medium-sized enterprises. It is also setting up a special 125m Ecu European Technology Fund.