The forecasters are also predicting that unemployment will get better after March 1999 as exporters start to take on new staff to take advantage of the lower NZ dollar.

For its part, the government is planning to slash over 2000 public sector jobs. This includes making 400 firefighters and 450 police redundant, 780 job losses at Inland Revenue, an expected loss of about 200 positions with the merger of NZ Employment Service and Income Support, a further 240 jobs will be lost as the four regional health authorities merge into one funding agency. And 60 customs staff also face redundancy.

Source _ New Zealand Herald 20 June 1998 "Jobless wait for spinoff from low dollar" by Bernard Orsman

In announcing the new name, Employment Minister Peter McCardle says he believes the name fits perfectly: "It is clear and simple, and reflects the direction of the Government's employment and welfare reforms. It also expresses the government's belief in the importance of work in achieving personal, economic and social independence"

The new super-agency will be one of the largest government departments in terms of staff numbers about 14% of the public service are involved in this restructuring process.

Coming soon: the public release of the "branding" images of the new organisation -- the graphics, logos and other design features.

It will have thirteen administrative regions, loosely modeled on the existing regional structure of Income Support.

In the hierarchy: the super agency is to be headed by a soon-to-be-appointed Chief Executive. Under this position is a National Commissioner, followed by the thirteen Regional Commissioners. Also reporting to the National Commissioner will be the CEG National Manager, and the LEC Managers.

The Community Employment Group has survived virtually in-tact in the restructuring and will continue to operate in its five-region structure, and retain its permanent field staff positions.

Most staff now have been shown a "consultation kit" which contains information on how the process will work, what decisions have been made to date, including which decisions are not being consulted about. The closing date for submissions in this process is 8th July. The research company UMR Insight is also doing a telephone survey of staff reactions to the proposals put forward by the consultation.

The advertisements for the commissioners say these people will have "the authority and flexibility to deliver solutions to local issues via specific and integrated service delivery channels". The day-to-day service delivery in each region will be delegated to a Regional Operations Manager.

Sources _ Transition Talk No 26, 21 June 1998, and The Consultation Kit from the Integration Transition Team

NZES project manager Mark Christie says the Job Bank site combines the best features found in internet job sites around the world. Job seekers can now select work either by region or category and then email their personal details to the NZES. Employers can also email vacancies to the site, which is updated every 30 minutes. There is expected to be 1200-1500 jobs listed on the site at any given time.

Christie says that NZES will widen access to its resources by partnering with community organisations which already have internet connections. It will offer them a special browser designed to access features on the internet site. It is also possible that software allowing people access to the Job Bank site, but not the rest of the internet, could be given to job seekers who owned a computer and a modem.

Check out the Job Bank at http://job-bank.nzes.govt.nz

Source _ NZ Infotech Weekly Issue No 350

Source _ Otago Daily Times 20 June 1998 "On-line job search for the unemployed"

The official report says that, at the end of March, it had taken six months to get close to the target of signing up 50 community groups to become Community Broker Organisations (CBOs) who will find sponsors who, in turn, will find work for the unemployed. The official report said that 47 organisations had been contracted to broker a minimum of 6,115 jobs. At the time, they had arranged just 331 jobs. Finding and contracting the community organisations had cost the government $3.2m.

The report also quoted focus group research which showed "substantial philosophical opposition within some communities" to the attempts to extend the Community Task Force scheme. The report: "A number of organisations had overcome philosophical concerns about the scheme in order to participate. Some stated that if they felt they were becoming instruments for coercing job-seekers into unsatisfactory work as part of work-testing they would reconsider there involvement"

Source _ The Independent 24 June 1998 "Govt job search hits obstacles" by Graeme Speden

Sources _ New Zealand Herald 18 June 1998 "Dole workers to get safety cover" by NZPA; and Safeguard Update No 97 4 May 1998

The tentative dates released to the media so far include: 1st September Hikoi departs North Cape and Stewart Island; 5 September Kaitaia and Invercargill; 12 September Auckland and Dunedin; 19 September Hamilton and Christchurch, New Plymouth, Napier and Nelson; 26 September Palmerston North and Blenheim; 1 October Parliament Grounds Wellington.

Source _ Mean Times Vol 9 Issue 1 1998

The main criticisms of the Jobs Network launch were that the multi-million dollar advertising campaign was long on waffle and short on actual information leading to confusions amongst jobseekers and employers alike.

The Australian reports that the tendering process for new agencies produced some embarrassingly successful applicants, including one without a telephone or an office.

The launch was also dogged by the failure to connect the different contracting agencies with the new central computer database. The Labour opposition claims that the central computer has become a bottleneck amid the confusion of the changeover, and the 310 Job Network agencies, most of them small private operations, are not getting enough referrals to operate successfully. The government however denies a bottleneck has developed in the system, but will not release full figures for months.

Flex 3 people are the long-term unemployed, or those assessed at risk of being so. It is through a Flex 3 client that a contracted agency can earn up to $10,000, if the client is placed and stays in work for at least six months. Other working-age beneficiaries are classified as Flex 2, and they are usually referred to agencies for help with presentation and job action plans.

All job seekers have access to Flex 1 which is the basic labour-exchange service for which non-beneficiaries can legally be charged for services. Employers can, and are, being charged for services which used to be free under the old Commonwealth Employment service (CES). The Australian says that as a consequence, many employers are choosing not to list their jobs with the new service.

Source _ The Australian 8 June 1998 "Job Network shows early vital signs"

The American economy has been booming since 1991, and welfare rolls have fallen by 37% since Bill Clinton took up his presidency. But till now, no one knew exactly where these people were going. The Accounting Office now reports that in Maryland, in 1995, 4% of welfare recipients found jobs but this had jumped to 17% in 1997. In Louisiana, the number jumped from 6% to 17%, in California from 9% to 19%. Oregon and Wisconsin increased their job-finding rates by 70%. Texas was the only state to show a lowdown in the flow of jobless into work.

When it was introduced, the "time limits" law was denounced as inhumane because it laid down that no one would receive more than a total of five years of welfare payments from the federal government during their lifetime. Critics have argued that people did not choose to be unemployed and the new law would leave them in poverty, or in casual work that paid only poverty-level wages.

Source _ The Dominion 22 June 1998 "Benefit cuts get US working" from the Daily Telegraph