CofFEE advocates the implementation and maintenance of the Job Guarantee

The Centre of Full Employment and Equity (known as CofFEE) is an official research centre at the University of Newcastle and seeks to promote research aimed at restoring full employment and achieving an economy that delivers equitable outcomes for all. For more please go to the What is CofFEE page?

  January 22, 2010 - Flash map tools for CofFEE Functional Economic Regions

You can now download the map tools which allow you to study the CofFEE Functional Economic Regions geography without having to use GIS mapping software. They overlay ABS Statistical Local Area and Labour Market Regions onto the FER boundaries to allow comparisons. Zooming and mouse dragging the maps are possible. You have to have flash installed to view these maps.

You can also download the complete set of shapefiles for this geography.

Go to Functional Economic Regions Home Page - for all the latest resources available under this project.

  November 23, 2009 - Modern monetary theory interviews

You can now watch a 4-part series of interviews where leading modern monetary theory developers Professors Bill Mitchell and Randy Wray talk about their work and how it applies to the operation of fiscal policy.

Please visit CoFFEE University home page for access.

  October 17, 2009 - CofFEE EVI Dynamic Tracking Tools

These tools allow you to compare the EVI risk assessments derived from the 2006 Census of Population and Housing against the Centrelink Newstart and Youth Allowance data since December 2008. The tools provide map visualisation and animation to allow you to track the labour market performance since December 2008 in the main centres of Australia.

  Latest working papers - November 2009

--> Dynamic tracking of the Employment Vulnerability Index against Centrelink labour market payments data - in this paper by Michael Flanagan and Bill Mitchell, the new tools that the Centre has developed to map the EVI assessments against the claims for unemployment benefits from Centrelink are explained and demonstrated.

--> A modern monetary perspective on the crisis and a reform agenda - this paper by Bill Mitchell provides an alternative view of the economic crisis that has beset the world economy and a proposal ground in modern monetary theory to reform the financial system.

--> Locked-in casual employment - this paper by Riccardo Welters and Bill Mitchell provides an up-to-date examination of the hypothesis that under certain circumstances casual workers can become trapped into a work history of repetitive casual jobs with little chance of escape.

--> A 21st Century Solution to Skill Shortages in Australia - this paper by Victor Quirk argues for specific, major, institutional reforms capable of building a high-skilled internationally competitive labour force in Australia. It proposes to replace the current policy of maintaining labour underutilisation as a productivity driver, with a national system of counter-cyclical public sector employment and skills formation infrastructure, organised on a regional basis.

  Latest CLMI: August Quarter 2009 - Labour market deterioration continues - 12.6 per cent overall underutilisation rate (posted September 27, 2009)

The latest CLMI for August 2009 confirms that the labour market continues to deteriorate as the slow GDP growth impacts on employment and hours-worked. The total labour underutilisation rate has jumped to 8.7 to 12.6 since the downturn started in February 2008. While the official unemployment rate is hovering around 5.8 per cent, underemployment is now around 5 per cent. This reflects the sharp drop in full-time employment and rationing of hours as employers adjust to falling sales and rising inventories. Underemployment is now well above the peak reached during the 1991 recession. We expect the deterioration to worsen into 2010. However, at this stage we are calling this the underemployment recession given how strong the decline in hours-worked has been relative to rises in unemployment.

Some people have asked why the ABS estimates of underemployment are higher than hours. The reason lies in the different methodologies used. The ABS compute their estimates on a person-basis (so someone is either underemployed or not) whereas the CLMI is an hours-based measure and takes into account the extra hours that different underemployed workers indicate they desire but cannot obtain.

  CofFEE University - Public lectures on the Global Financial Crisis - May 2009

The CofFEE University held a series of public lectures on the Global Financial Crisis during May 2009, in Newcastle, Australia. The speakers were CofFEE Director Bill Mitchell and CofFEE senior associate, Professor Randy Wray (University of Missouri, Kansas City).

For more information go to the CofFEE University Home Page

Complete video podcast - Lecture 2, May 20, 2009

Slideshow for the third lecture (May 27) are also now available for download (please print 6 to a page to save trees!). Video podcasts and slideshows coming for Lectures 1 and 3 soon.

  Tuesday, March 16, 2009 - Policy Report: Red alert suburbs: An employment vulnerability index for Australia's major urban regions

The Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE) at the University of Newcastle in collaboration with the Urban Research Program (URP) at Griffith University announce the launching of the CofFEE/URP Employment vulnerability index (EVI).

This new research by Profesors Bill Mitchell (CofFEE) and Scott Baum (URP) identifies the suburbs across Australia that are most vulnerable to job losses as a result of the current economic crisis. The researchers have developed an economic model to predict the employment vulnerability by suburb. The Employment vulnerability index covers all the Capitals and major regional cities - some 70 per cent of the total population.

The EVI reveals those suburbs - Red Alert and Amber Alert suburbs - which are most exposed to potential job losses and least well placed to escape disadvantage associated with increasing unemployment. The high risk suburbs include the traditional battler suburbs. But what is disturbing is that the researchers have also identified a new arena of socio-economic disadvantage that will emerge as a result of the current crisis. The new arenas include the mortgage belt suburbs that have grown on the periphery of our major cities.

The Report also identify those suburbs that have Medium low risk and, in turn, Low risk of job loss.

The Report is accompanied by a fully-resourced WWW Home Page which has extensive maps and data profiles of the job loss suburbs. The Report can also be downloaded from the EVI Home Page. Further developments in the near future will include interactive maps which will provide a more dynamic understanding of urban disadvantage in Australia's metropolitan and regional centres.

For media - please ring Professor Bill Mitchell on 0419 422 410 or contact the CofFEE Office (see menu on left).

  New Policy Report: Creating effective local labour markets: a new framework for regional employment policy

This CofFEE Policy Report develops a new framework for the design of regional employment policy. It emphasises increased public sector infrastructure spending, the implementation of a National Skills Development framework and the introduction of a national Job Guarantee. Our proposed new integrated policy framework will provide more effective ways to assist disadvantaged individuals into employment and advance sustainable solutions to persistent unemployment across regional Australia. We consider there are not enough jobs being generated and the current policy regime which focuses on supply-side characteristics is largely a waste of resources.

The Report presents a major challenge to the Federal government which has so far not demonstrated it is committed to restoring full employment and abandoning the ineffective supply-side emphasis of its predecessors. We consider the detailed analysis of how a Job Guarantee could be introduced in addition to its integration into a National Skills Development framework is innovative and compelling. We urge the relevant policy makers to abandon their failed 'full employability' approach and instead embrace the policy structures laid out in this Report.

The Report was launched at the ANZ Regional Science conference in Adelaide on December 1 by David Thompson, CEO Jobs Australia.

  A Just Transition to a Renewable Energy Economy in the Hunter Region, Australia

This Report was commissioned by Greenpeace Australia and demonstrates major benefits to the Hunter and nearby Wyong region from shifting from coal-fired power to a renewable energy economy. The Report includes two energy scenarios, detailing job creation for the Hunter as a self-sufficient energy producer and as an export centre.

Page last updated: January 22, 2010