A record one billion people or a third of the global workforce are unemployed or underemployed, according to the latest International Labour Office (ILO) report on worldwide employment trends, released last week. Michel Hansenne, the director general of the Geneva-based organisation, says that the global employment situation is "grim and getting grimmer..." and he warns that growing unemployment will bring more poverty and inequality, as the global economic crisis spreads.

Of the one billion total, some 150 million workers are actually "officially" unemployed, mainly in industrialised countries. In addition, 25 - 30% of the world's workers or between 750 million and 900 million people are under-employed. These people are either working substantially less than full-time, but wanting to work longer ... or are earning less than a living wage.

The ILO says that the East Asian financial crisis will increase joblessness by 10 million directly and up to 20 million indirectly this year. The economic crisis has boosted Indonesia's unemployment rate from 4% to 12%, increasing the numbers of those in poverty from about 22 million to 80 million. In South Korea unemployment has jumped from 2.6% to 7%, while in Thailand the jobless rate is expected to reach 6% this year, compared with between 1-2% two years ago. About 3.5 million workers are also expected to be laid off in China as state enterprises are "restructured". The ILO report also highlights the sharp deterioration in employment in central and eastern Europe since the collapse of the communist regimes nearly a decade ago.

The picture of global unemployment and underemployment contained in the ILO report contrasts sharply with the last ILO Employment report which was published in 1996 (see Jobsletter No 52 ). At that time, the ILO said that a number of encouraging signs heralded a global economic revival and would cut unemployment and underemployment worldwide. Now, Michel Hansenne says that the revival, which the agency anticipated would spur higher jobs growth in all parts of the world, has "only cut unemployment and underemployment in the United States, and to a lesser degree in the European Union".

The ILO still has the same recipe for change that it recommended in 1996: more training and education. See the special feature in this issue of The Jobs Letter. Long-term unemployment continues to be a concern for the ILO. It has been particularly severe in the European Union member countries, where more than 60% of the 9 million long-term unemployed in 1996 have been out of work longer than two years.

The ILO also estimates that about 60 million young people around the world between the ages of 15 and 24 are in search of work, with youth unemployment running to 20% in many OECD countries. In developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America, urban unemployment rates for young people often reach over 30%. The latest global economic turmoil makes young workers even more vulnerable to layoffs - employers react to economic recession by cutting back on hiring new workers. The report also points out the wider dangers from youth unemployment: vandalism, crime, drug abuse, alienation, social unrest and conflict.

The ILO has, however, found examples of programmes that work for young people. It recommends: "schemes that provide young people with a foothold in the labour market through short-term in-firm work experience." A key policy approach in many of the European Union countries is to provide financial incentives to firms to hire and provide some training for young workers. In the mid-1990s, these "youth contracts" accounted for almost 25% of youth employment in Italy, 20% in Greece and 12% in France and Spain.

Source Press releases from the ILO available on the website at http://www.ilo.org/ ; The Guardian Weekly 4 October 1998 "Jobless totals one billion worldwide" by Seumas Milne

Many of Sydney's beleaguered Job Network agencies (see The Jobs Letter No.84) were hoping for a Labour Party victory as they were promising increased funding for their training programmes. The Sydney Morning Herald estimates that up to a third of the 310 new agencies are at risk of folding financially because of the strict criteria for their schemes.

A new study, by the Centre for Labour Research at the University of Adelaide, says that regional labour markets in Australia are in crisis and face higher unemployment rates than at any time since the Great Depression. The study predicts unemployment rates will rise over the next 12 months, driven by global financial instability.

Centre Director John Spoehr says: "Unless we take steps to buffer our labour market against the approaching downturn, unemployment in Australia will rise substantially ... the jobless rate in regional Australia could reach unprecedented levels." He says that dealing with the crisis in regional employment requires "a new political consensus built around the need for increased government intervention and a willingness to use a proportion of the budget surplus to fund new industry, regional and employment development programs..."

The study finds that Australia's national unemployment rate is much worse at the close of this employment "recovery period" than at the end of the previous two recovery periods: 8.2%, compared with 6% in 1990 and 6.1% in 1980. Tasmania, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia were particularly hard hit, with unemployment rates 30 to 40 per cent higher than at the end of the previous two recovery periods, according to the study.

Source -- Sydney Morning Herald 6 October 1998 "Howard takes broom to cabinet"; Sydney Morning Herald 30 September 1998 "Job Network agencies warn of mass closures under coalition"; Australian Financial Times 8 October 1998 "Red alert on jobs in the bush".

The new SPD leader, Gerd Schröder, has made it clear that the government will be judged on its record on job generation. He has advocated an Alliance for Jobs, in which government, unions, employers and even churches are to hammer out a common line on employment.

Schröder is concerned not to levy additional costs on employers and he wants to free up the battery of regulations that inhibits Germany developing a vibrant job-generating service sector. He is also a clear supporter of Keynesian-style demand management.

The designate Finance Minister Oskar Lafontaine believes that Germany's poor record in job generation is about lack of demand, and he sees the chief culprit as Bundesbank policies. He has already called for an interest rate cut, and is looking to replace the bank's current President with someone who is not such a hard-line monetarist.

The solution, according to Lafontaine, is to reorganise the European and international systems so they are more biased towards economic expansion. That would allow individual European countries more autonomy in launching national job creation policies. Watch this space...

Source _ Will Hutton "You could always depend on the Germans to be right of centre and a little dull. Now, that will be wrong on both counts" in The Observer 4 October 1998

The membership fee of UNITE! has been set at a minimum of $1 per week. This will rise in graduated steps to $5 per week for who are employed and want to join the union as "solidarity" members who may not need the services of the union but wish to support its work. The National Office of UNITE! is situated at 11 Sunlight Grove, Porirua, PO Box 50-612, Porirua. phone 04-237-5062 or 0800-2-UNITE.

Unite! Officers: President, Robert Reid (Wellington) Vice President, George Larkins (Palmerston North) Secretary, Caroline Hatt (Wellington); Executive: Paul Blair (Rotorua), Bill Bradford (Auckland), Helen Te Hira (Auckland), Lynn Smart (Milton), Jim Lamb (Christchurch), Tali Williams (Wellington), Julie Poupard (Hamilton), Gary Reid (Wanganui).

Source _ Common Ground September 1998

Source _ http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Village/3405/hikoi/voices/

Hawken will be speaking in Auckland on 3 Nov, Wellington 4 Nov, and Christchurch on 5 Nov. For details phone Ros Capper 04-293-3310, or email 100356.731@compuserve.com.

Hawken is also the chairperson of the US branch of Natural Step, an environmental foundation dedicated to promoting principles of sustainable development within organisations, businesses and countries. Hawken sees the future of work as directly related to the environmental challenges before us: "All living systems are in decline and the rate of decline is speeding up. We are using more of what we have less of, and less of what we have more of ... we are the only species without full employment!"

Warren Snow, Manager of the Tindall Foundation, has recently returned from a Natural Step training workshop in Chicago. His conclusion: "The business sector has more opportunity than any other to help turn society towards sustainability. Many businesses have control through their buying power over part of or even the whole supply chain and through marketing over people's attitudes and behaviour. A clear message is that business holds the key to the future as much if not more than any other sector of society..."

Snow has produced a report on the conferences he attended "Gaining Competitive Business Advantage through Environmental Sustainability" available for $5 from the Tindall Foundation at P.O.Box 33-181, Takapuna, Auckland.

Source _ Paul Hawken Tour flyer from Ros Capper; "Gaining Competitive business Advantage through Environmental Sustainability" report on Natural Step training workshop by Warren Snow, Manager of the Tindall Foundation

Source _ Adapted from Max Eggert's "The Book of Career Questions" Arrow Business Books

The Commission has been set up by the Ministry of Maori Affairs, and was a part of the now-defunct coalition agreement. It aims to recommend policies and processes to reduce Maori unemployment. Commission chairman Rongo Wetere: "The Commission is comprised of a proven and committed group of Maori and their extensive networks. It strives to improve government processes in collaboration with Maori ... only through action oriented and integrated development, can real opportunities for our peoples employment be realised..."

The Commission has set itself ambitious goals in creating an employment plan which will be accepted by all political parties for the creation of 200,000 new jobs in New Zealand in a 5-year period. It also wants: separate identifiable funding for Maori controlled by Maori; the adoption of a successful and sustainable self-determination model for Maori; and the reintroduction of work-based training on a national level.

In recent months, the main focus of the Commission has been on gaining a greater Maori perspective in the new WINZ organisation, The Commission has also engaged a series of consultants on research projects which will be collated over the next month, and presented to Ministers early next year.

Source --Maori Employment Commission site at http://www.maori-employment.govt.nz/

Source -- Maori Employment Commission site at http://www.maori-employment.govt.nz/

There was also a 57% increase in the number of people employed in newspaper and magazine publishing, and a 32% increase in workers employed in advertising agencies.

Source The Dominion 2 October 1998 "Cultural sector employs 5% of workforce" by James Norgate

The course requires students to acquire 60 unit-standard credits in a wide range of areas, including literacy, numeracy, communications and computing skills. They also work on problem-solving, health and safety in the workplace and interpreting basic graphs and tables. Students on the course spend four days a week at school, and one day in work experience.

Transition teacher Sue Lewis says that her school serves a large district, and that the certificate in employment skills "provides a core qualification which is both relevant and realistic for a number of secondary students..."

Source _ New Zealand Herald 2 September 1998 "Building on skills for tomorrow's workforce" by Pat Baskett

Source _ flyer from Commact

The fourth national Foodbank Conference will be held in Wellington 13-14 November, with the theme "Hidden poverty in NZ". It is being organised by the coalition of Wellington regional foodbanks. Contact P.O.Box 6133 Wellington, phone 04-384-7699

Source _ flyer from conference

Source _ seminar flyer

from "Harvesting Hometown Jobs" (1997) published by the National Center for Small Communities (http://www.natat.org)