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?

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

The CofFEE University is holding a series of public lectures on the Global Financial Crisis during May 2009, in Newcastle, Australia. The lectures are free and open to the general public. The speakers will be CofFEE Director Bill Mitchell and CofFEE senior associate, Professor Randy Wray (University of Missouri, Kansas City). Both speakers are internationally reknowned researchers in macroeconomics and offer perspectives that are missing in the mainstream public debate.

For more information about topics, times and locations - 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.

  Latest CLMI: February Quarter 2009 - Sharp deterioration in labour market - 11.2 per cent overall underutilisation rate (posted March 24, 2009)

The latest CLMI for February 2009 confirms that the labour market is deteriorating very quickly. The total labour underutilisation has jumped to 11.2 per cent from 9.7 per cent in November 2008. The official unemployment jumped in February also but underemployment has risen sharply from 3.9 per cent to 4.6 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 above the peak reached during the 1991 recession. We expect the deterioration to worsen in the May quarter. The Federal Government must directly target the inevitable job losses through regionally-based job creation programs to minimis the damage of the global downturn. We expect all components of the CLMI - official unemployment, underemployment and hidden unemployment to rise relatively sharply over the coming 12 months.

  Tuesday, March 16, 2009 - New 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: May 27, 2009