Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Jennifer Mills: Employment Specialist on the rise in people on the Jobseeker benefit

Transcript

Jennifer Mills: Employment Specialist on the rise in people on the Jobseeker benefit · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: New data out this morning from the Ministry of Social Development.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: This is in the New Zealand Herald from MSD shows
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: that between September twenty three September twenty four, the number
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: of people getting the job seeker work Ready payment twelve thousand,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: three hundred increase. That's eleven point eight percent. Interestingly, and
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: this is how the government will try and spin it.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: More recent month on month data shows that the tide
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: is starting to turn back the other way for job
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: sec work ready numbers that are down by three hundred
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: people zero point two percent. That's month on month, So
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: they're saying, yes, year on year this looks bad, but
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: month on month, we think we have reached the peak. However,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: we're going to go to Jennifer Mills, employment specialist at
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  Speaker 1: Jennifer Mills and Associates, for her take on this this morning. Jennifer,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: good morning to you.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Good morning. How are you Ryan?
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Very well? Thank you, nice to hear your voice. Who
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: are you.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Seeing look at I was just thinking Ryan while I
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: was waiting. This is the first time that I've been
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: on your show and it's the first time we've caught
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: up since your previous role. So nice to be involved.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Nice to have you on. Tell me who are you
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: seen being made redundant at the moment.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: Well, just before I look at who we, I think
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: our private practice experience is consistent with for September figures.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: So we had a real spike in structuring instructions up
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: to the annualized June period. And it was the sort
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  Speaker 2: of redundancies which were designed to cut labor costs. So
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: it was downsizing simple disestablishment of positions and it wasn't
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: the nice to have maximizing synergy type redundancies. So employers
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: were cutting costs. But interestingly, and this is the part
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: that's consistent with the data, since winter, we have seen
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: a decline in the number of restructuring instructions. And I
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: do wonder whether employers have now got to the point
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: where they've done everything they can from a cost labor
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  Speaker 2: cutting perspective to you know, get the business right, and
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: now they're hunkering down. And I also wonder whether there
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: is an impact from the restructuring or recruitment I should
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: say freeze. So employers have completed their restructuring and now
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: they're in a holding pattern and there's very much a
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: freeze on recruitment and you may have seen also, Ryan,
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: that there's been a drop by thirty three percent in
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  Speaker 2: job advertisements being posted coming up to that June twenty
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: twenty four quarter period. And you know, that's really telling.
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  Speaker 2: I think that they're just aren't the jobs.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: It's really interesting that what you're seeing marries up with
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: what we're hearing here from this data. Can you just
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: very quickly before we go the clients that you see
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: who have been made redundant in the last couple of
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: months or even in the last couple of years, do
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: they have savings to go and live off. Do they
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: have other work that they have managed to pick up.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: No, So it's pretty pretty dire for a large group
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: of the people who we see are being made redundant.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: Most are party to individual employment agreements. They don't have
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: an entitlement to redundancy compensation because there's no statutory right
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  Speaker 2: to it in this country. Employers are doing the right
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: thing as best they can, and they are paying x
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: grasher payments to soften the blow, but we really, you know,
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: we do see employees being made redundant without savings, with
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: very little buffer, and it's excuse me, it's very difficult
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: for them to find and secure alternative employment, and that's
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: what we're seeing in the annualized results to September. There
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: is certainly then and an increase on the tenure and
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: your average as well, which is I guess by design
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: by the Reserve Bank. But people are doing it tough.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's what Bryan, It's what we need. It's what
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: we needed. Is what's what we ask for? Really, isn't
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: it as well in terms of taming inflation? But not
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: easy for those individuals who are affected. Jennifer Mills, thank
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  Speaker 1: you very much for your time this morning, and great
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: to have you back on our show, any show.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: Really.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: I think you're great. Jennifer Mills, employment specialist at Jennifer
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Mills and Associates. For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge,
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: listen live to News Talks it be from five am weekdays,
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.