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Today's time is 15:06:38 on Tuesday, May 13, 2008
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A 2020 Vision for the Australian economy - outlines the changes that need to be made to the conduct of economic policy to achieve a Zero Waste of Australians
The latest CLMI for February 2007 shows that total labour underutilisation has fallen below 8 per cent for the first time in the time series history (started in February 1978). It now is hovering at 7.9 per cent down slightly from 8.1 in November (seasonally adjusted). The decline has come from falling official unemployment but masks a worsening underemployment situation (concentrated among males). The economy is still generating part-time employment that wastes the potential of around 2.8 per cent of the willing labour force. The detailed state breakdowns indicate that the mining states are seeing improved labour market conditions while NSW and Victoria are facing rising unemployment rates. Overall the economy is still a long way from full employment, notwithstanding tightening conditions in some regional (and industrial/occupational) labour markets. There is an urgent need for the Federal Government to create a true national skills development framework with a strong public sector training and employment role. Click to view the latest Summary CLMI Chart. Users of the CLMI might note that the Fair Pay Commission in its first Economic and Social Indicators - Monitoring Report (released February 22) have used the CLMI to document the trends in broader labour underutilisation. Their Table 2 uses our hours-based measures. To access the data, go to the CLMI page and select options under national indicators. You can then download the data tables into any normal word or spreadsheet application. The four detailed quarterly CLMI publications for February 2008 can be downloaded using the following links:
For earlier quarterly reports consult the CLMI Catalogue.
Full Employment Abandoned: Shifting Sands and Policy Failures by Bill Mitchell and Joan Muysken will be published by Edward Elgar Publishing UK in March 2008. You can order the book on-line from the publisher by clicking the title link. It is currently being offered at a nice introductory discount. The official book launch will be on July 4 at the AHE Conference in Cambridge, UK. A preview from Prof. Philip Arestis (Cambridge Univ) says This book by William Mitchell and Joan Muysken is both important and timely. It deals with the issue of the abandonment of full employment as an objective of economic policy in the OECD countries. It argues persuasively that macroeconomic policy has been restrictive over the recent, and not so recent past, and has produced substantial open and disguised unemployment. But the authors show how a job guarantee policy can enable workers, who would otherwise be unemployed, to earn a wage and not depend on welfare support. If such a policy is fully supported by appropriate fiscal and monetary programmes, it can create a full employment with price stability, and which the authors label as a Non-Accelerating-Inflation-Buffer Employment Ratio (NAIBER). This book is essential reading for any one wishing to understand how we can return to full employment as the normal state of affairs.
This year is the 10th Anniversary CofFEE Path to Full Employment Conference which also hosts the National Unemployment Conference (in its 15th edition). The 2008 CofFEE Conference will be held at the University of Newcastle on Thursday, December 4 and Friday, December 5. We are assembling a great group of guest speakers for our anniversary conference and other activities are planned. Keep a date free in your diary! Conference Home Page
CofFEE Director Bill Mitchell appeared on the Radio National current affairs program Australia Talks on Thursday, February 28 and spoke about the problems with using the unemployment rate to measure labour underutilisation, the failure of the previous government to introduce a national skills framework and the challenges facing the current federal government. You can listen to the program HERE
--> Full employmemt does not mean low unemployment - this paper by Bill Mitchell and Joan Muysken argues that the claim by the previous government that inflation fears were a reflection of a strong labour market are erroneous. It estimates a new Phillips curve which shows how underemployment now influences price inflation. --> Hidden unemployment in Australia 2007 - this paper by Bill Mitchell presents update estimates of hidden unemployment in Australia and argues that claims that the Australian economy is operating at full employment are false. --> Identifying functional regions in Australia using hierarchical aggregation techniques - this paper by Bill Mitchell, Anthea Bill and Martin Watts presents a new socio-economic geography for NSW as a prototype to a more comprehensive overhaul of the standard Labour Force geography typically used to report official statistics. It is a technical paper but will be of interest to all spatial social scientists. --> The failed full employability paradigm - this paper by CofFEE researchers Emma Allen, Beth Cook, Bill Mitchell and Martin Watts challenges the wisdom of the current policy framework adopted by neo-liberal governments, such as the Australian Government. It argues that the when governments adopted the goal of full employability rather than full employment, they relinquished their responsibility for achieving the optimum use of their labour resources. Accordingly, labour market policy was limited to ensuring that individuals were 'ready for employment'. Under the flawed logic of the 1994 OECD Jobs Study, governments in many countries began the relentless imposition of active labour market programs which were designed to churn the unemployed through training programs and/or force participation in workfare compliance programs. The dominance of this approach is incomprehensible given the stark evidence since 1975 that there have never been enough jobs available to match the willing labour supply.
The ABC 7.30 Report ran a story on the failure of the Job Network last night (October 31) - Go to the ABC site for the Transcript. CofFEE Director Bill Mitchell described the Job Network as a monumental waste of money. You can watch the video of the segment HERE |
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