The survey of job vacancy ads in 25 daily newspapers has found that job ads have recorded double-digit increases each month for the last 14 months. The Department has been monitoring the job advertisements to identify skills shortages that could undermine the economy. The results are being used to plan immigration policies and funding for training programmes.

The shortages are assessed to be genuine skill shortages, as opposed to recruitment difficulties, in all but one occupation surveyed. The causes of trade shortages are varied and include a drop in young people entering the trades in the 1990s and low training rates at the "fully trade qualified" levels. The growth in number of workers through training and migration falls short of the loss of trades people through retirement and occupational wastage and the increase in demand for more workers through job creation. The Department expects shortages to persist in the short term.

A Treasury report obtained by the New Zealand Herald under the Official Information Act indicates Treasury is also concerned at the growing state sector wage bill, which has increased by between $750 million and $1 billion in each budget since the Labour-led government came to power. At the end of National's nine-year term, in 1999, total state sector staff numbers stood at 245,201. By September 2004 that figure had grown by 33,630 to 278,831. In core government departments, staffing has risen from 30,702 to 38,270. The Treasury report indicates it would like to see spending and job cuts in the state sector.

Mallard outlined some of the new non-core government staff are: 2,700 extra teachers over and above those needed for roll growth, 950 medical doctors, 3,300 nurses, more than 820 prison staff, and 1,080 police staff.

Source — New Zealand Herald 7 April 2005 "Government ridicules proposal to cut state jobs" by Kevin Taylor; New Zealand Herald 7 April 2005 "State pay cuts and job losses on cards" by Kevin Taylor.

Opportunity for a lifetime: Creating an ownership society in New Zealand says the government could pay for the savings scheme by diverting 2% of what it receives in personal income tax into the scheme, essentially saving 2% of everyone's taxable income, including welfare benefits. These accounts could have more than $14,000 by the child's 18^th birthday, reducing or eliminating the need for a student loan scheme and ensuring everyone starts adult life with a firm financial base.

The discussion document says its proposals would require a major fiscal commitment — $4 billion a year — to promoting asset ownership in New Zealand. And it calls for policies in a range of areas — housing, student loans and welfare — to be changed to put a greater focus on promoting asset ownership.

But Fallow says the national savings rate would still go up as long as any reduction in government saving was exceeded by an increase in household saving. In any case, the institute's scheme is also about spreading the benefits of asset ownership and a savings culture more widely within society.

The NZ Institute scheme rests on the simple intuition that if you make it easier to do something, people will do more of it. The Institute argues that during the past 20 years we have made it much easier to borrow. Consequently, we have accumulated a lot of debt. Now we need to make it easier for people to save and accumulate assets. Fallow says the government acknowledges the desirability of this and has signalled that the May Budget will contain measures to boost saving for retirement and help with buying a first home. But the sums involved will clearly be modest compared with the institute's bold proposal and will, therefore, only nibble at the problem.

— Opportunity for a lifetime: Creating an ownership society in New Zealand, 6 April 2005, published by the New Zealand Institute, detailed reports on each of the 16 trades can be found here.

Sources — The Independent 6 April 2005 "How to pay for the `ownership society'" by Bob Edlin; Opportunity for a lifetime:Creating an ownership society in New Zealand; New Zealand Herald 6 April 2005 "Time for a real savings culture", by Brian Fallow; New Zealand Herald 7 April 2005 "Sums of saving" by Brian Fallow.

Minister of Education Trevor Mallard says vocational programmes with relatively poor employment outcomes will not be a funding priority and neither will programmes that only relate to personal interests or hobbies and have no other benefit. Mallard: "It's fair to say there have been concerns for some time about burgeoning expenditure on courses around which some of us couldn't put our hands on our hearts and say they were high quality and highly relevant. Instead our targets for funding will include programmes that match our skill development needs."

Mallard says the review was not sparked by the recent problems involving Te Wananga O Aotearoa but it is clear the change will affect the institution. He says one of the problems is that the system had allowed for, and probably rewarded, organisations that behaved in a self-maximizing manner. Mallard says the focus for the last 20 years was to get the numbers of people undertaking tertiary study up. Now this has been achieved the focus needs to be on excellence and quality.

Source — Daily News, 6 April 2005, Govt shifting funding to courses leading to jobs" by Peter Wilson, NZPA; Dominion Post 6 April 2005 "Labour-funded `hobbies' courses face chop" by Michelle Quirke; Dominion Post 6 April 2005 "Skill comments come under fire" by Michelle Quirke.

Dr Don Simmers, deputy chair of the Medical Association, says while New Zealand doctors have traditionally gained overseas experience, there is now concern there is little incentive for them to return. Simmers: "We need practical ways of encouraging doctors to stay here and work."

The report recommends the government reduce medical school fees (now $11,000 per year), increase the trainee intern grant, and give all students a living allowance. Only 20% of graduates surveyed received a living allowance for the full 6 years of their MBChB study.

— Doctors and Debt: The Effect of Student Debt on Doctors, March 2005, published by NZ University Students Assoc, NZ Medical Assoc & NZ Medical Students Assoc, ISBN 0-476-01494-8 can be found here.

Source — New Zealand Herald 31 March 2005 "Student debt of $65,000 hits doctors" by Rebecca Walsh; Doctors and Debt: The Effect of Student Debt on Doctors.

Indicating the shift in policy is the huge increase in spending in the sector. Government spending on home support services has nearly doubled since 1999, from $94 million to $170m last year. About half a million hours of home support are being billed each month, and 144 agencies have contracts with the government to care for those with disabilities, predominantly the elderly, at home.

Ten or 20 years ago, support workers were typically middle-aged women with life experience and excellent practical skills. But today they tended to be young, had little education or practical knowledge and "were only doing the position because they could not find any other work". And many of the 80 people with disabilities interviewed by researchers said they feared for their physical safety. They said carers sometimes did not turn up, some had poor hygiene and bad food preparation skills, and commonly didn`t know how to lift them safely.

Source — Sunday Star-Times, 20 March 2005, "Home truths" by Ruth Laugesen.

All the "applicants" were fluent in English and more than qualified for the post. Half the Asian-sounding candidates had local education and experience, and some of the Anglo-Saxon applicants were from Canada or Britain. The study found that when immigration status was included on the CVs given, not a single new Asian immigrant was shortlisted for a job. When immigration status was left off, having a Chinese or Indian name significantly raised chances of being considered "unsuitable". Chinese names were more "unsuitable" than Indian. Maori recruiters imposed similar ethnic penalties as Pakeha employers. Asian recruiters judged Asian and Pakeha applicants similarly.

Associate Professor Marie Wilson says many employers won't face up to the fact they are prejudiced. Wilson: "It's about merit and about being colour-blind when hiring. Prejudiced employers are shutting out a huge resource at a time of labour shortages. If you only want Pakeha in your workforce, you're limiting yourself to two-thirds of the available workforce, which is rapidly ageing. If you want to be internationally competitive, you can't be provincial in your hiring."

Source — New Zealand Herald 2 April 2005 "Foreign workers face battle to win jobs" by Julie Middleton.

Action priorities for action to reduce poverty:

— develop an official poverty measure, set targets for the reduction of poverty, and monitor progress towards meeting those targets — develop an integrated cross-sectoral programme for the reduction of poverty, applying the UN guidelines for a human rights approach to poverty reduction. Action priorities for action for improved employment outcomes: — address barriers to employment and challenge stereotypes in relation to disabled workers, older workers, migrants, refugees, Maori and Pacific workers, and men and women returning to the workforce after family responsibilities — increase diversity in participation in the Modern Apprenticeship Scheme — address bullying, harassment and discrimination in the workplace — connect sectors and coordinate Equal Employment Opportunities activities among practitioners, academics, employers and trade unions — improve the protection of rights for low paid and unpaid workers — adequately resource pay and employment equity in health, education and the public service to achieve compliance with ILO Convention 100 (Equal Remuneration Convention) — encourage the implementation of pay and employment equity in the private sector to achieve compliance with ILO Convention 100 (Equal Remuneration Convention) — ratify ILO Convention 183 on Maternity Protection — ratify ILO Convention 138 on the Minimum Age for Admission to Employment — ratify ILO Convention 87 on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise — ratify ILO Convention 159 on Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons). — improve training and career development opportunities for the home care and personal support workforce — improve the status and remuneration of home care and personal support workers.

— New Zealand Action Plan for Human Rights, Priorities for Action 2005—2010, February 2005, published by the Human Rights Commission Te Kahui Tika Tangata, ISBN: 0-477-05497-8, is accessible from: here.