Letter No.155
2 November, 2001

14 October 2001

A four-day workweek may help to save jobs at German airline Lufthansa. Management is working with unions and employee representatives on ways to stem the company's financial losses without laying off staff. Chief executive Juergen Weber says measures being discussed include flexible working hours and a shorter working week.

15 October 2001

The UN predicts global economic growth will be 1.4% this year. With the world population growing at 2.5%, analysts say that global economic growth of less than the birth rate indicates recession.

The number of US workers filing for unemployment benefits in September is the highest in ten years.

16 October 2001

Minister of Social Services and Employment Steve Maharey says that the government will not adopt a time limits approach to welfare benefits. Maharey says the scheme used in the US has resulted in deepening poverty among the poorest families with children.

Act Party Social Services spokesperson Muriel Newman says that she has evidence that shows that the move to time limit welfare benefits in the US encourages beneficiaries to re-integrate into the workforce and escape the poverty trap.

Jobs will be cut at the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology as it drops programmes that have declining enrollments. Chief executive John Cretney says that because many staff are part-time, more than 35 people will be affected.

At their biennial conference, Council of Trade Unions delegates back a bid to resist any workplace culture that promotes work to the exclusion of family and community values. President Ross Wilson says the CTU is developing a campaign that will include bargaining strategies for flexible working hours, family leave and job-sharing.

German technology company Siemens says it will close ten plants and cut 7,000 jobs over the next year, about half of them in Germany. Siemens has already dropped 10,000 staff this year.

17 October 2001

There has been a significant rise in the number of inquiries from foreign students wanting to attend NZ tertiary education institutions. It appears safety is a factor in re-directing students from what has been their most favoured destination, the US. While it is too early to know whether the inquiries will turn into enrollments, international political events, together with an increased marketing campaign by some NZ institutions, indicate large increases in foreign student numbers next year.

18 October 2001

NZ is rated as the tenth most competitive nation in the world according to the Global Competitiveness Report. The Harvard University survey rates the expected level of economic growth by surveying economic data and interviewing local executives on non-statistical issues. Finland rated first, the US second, and Australia sixth.

19 October 2001

As Ansett airline call centres close, about 500 employees in Sydney and Brisbane lose their jobs.

20 October 2001

Former Winz boss Christine Rankin says in her Weekend Herald column says that most beneficiaries want to work. But Rankin says there are three major obstacles to many people getting work: lack of life skills (cooking, cleaning, budgeting, child rearing), illiteracy, and drug and alcohol problems. She advocates that benefits should be declined or partly declined to provide incentives for people to participate in programmes that would help them overcome their personal barriers to employment.

22 October 2001

Labour Day

23 October 2001

As the Singapore economy shrinks, unemployment is expected to rise from 2.6% at mid-year to 4% by the end of the year.

Swissair cuts 9,000 jobs as it is taken over by its own subsidiary Crossair. Swiss president Moritz Leuenberger says that if the bailout package does not work, it will be the end for the Swiss airline.

Will Baily, a former chief executive of ANZ Banking Group in Australia says there should be a national debate on the re-creation of a state-own bank. Baily says 20% of Australians, including many small business owners and farmers, have been unable to benefit from private banking. He says a state-owned bank could operate out of the Australia Post network.

The US communications industry continues to lose jobs. SBC Communications will cut "thousands of jobs"; AT&T continues to cut staff; Bell South cuts 3,000 and Sprint cuts 6,000 jobs. Other tech industry job losses include 3,000 at Unisys in New York and 2,300 from the scrapping of international long distance telephone project Concert.

25 October 2001

Auckland-based boogie and body board manufacturer Broady International shifts its plant to Indonesia with the local loss of about 20 jobs. Director Brian Thorrington says there is nothing the government could have done to keep them in NZ. Thorrington: "Basically it takes cheap labour and we don't have that here."

The International Labour Organisation says the world tourism industry could lose more than nine million jobs as a result of the September 11 attacks.

26 October 2001

Italian national airlines Alitalia says it will lay off 5,200 staff.

28 October 2001

In a bid to keep their own citizens in work, Malaysian authorities cut the length of stay for foreign workers from six to three years. This will result in about 300,000 people will being deported within the next three months. In neighbouring Singapore, workers say it is nearly impossible to find work if they are not Singaporean.

29 October 2001

Canterbury University distributes invitations to staff to apply for volunteer redundancy. About 90 lecturing and administration jobs are expected to go.