Labour govt 2020-23

[peetter]

Yeah and like 2% of young people are on welfare, talk about a non-issue

I think Bjauck wants workers to have more productivity through a more european approach through investing in the human capital slightly more. More technology, learning how to use cloud software, machine learning etc.

Even though the unemployment for young people is low, educating them to progress from minimum wage is extremely important. There's shortage of trades people who can make really nice wages, but instead the government is all for minimum wage jobs with no skill progress.

As for learning how to use cloud software and machine learning, don't kid ourselfves. There's about 1% of population actually capable of doing jobs like that.

[Panda-NZ-]

Much more than that. Most professionals are going to need it in some form. I agree with your first statement though on the need for skills at any age.

Some more action on the age discrimination side would be good too.

[peetter]

We struggled to get sysadmins for months even though the salary was above average. Not for lack of candidates, but because most of them don't have enough to actually be successful at the job. At certain point you get to brain capacity limits that are not possible to overcome with just learning. Either you got it or not. Machine learning, automation, data mining and other similar roles are on even higher level. If middle level IT job is hard to fill out of hundreds of applicants, I think your assumption that average people will be able to get into machine learning is just naive.

It's the same situation as how governments are increasing education levels by pumping out bogus degrees with zero real life use.

[Panda-NZ-]

It's probably easier to get positions filled than if we had heaps of dropouts.

Though unis do need to ensure what they are teaching is current and make the point that learning never stops.

[Baa_Baa]

We struggled to get sysadmins for months even though the salary was above average. Not for lack of candidates, but because most of them don't have enough to actually be successful at the job. At certain point you get to brain capacity limits that are not possible to overcome with just learning. Either you got it or not. Machine learning, automation, data mining and other similar roles are on even higher level. If middle level IT job is hard to fill out of hundreds of applicants, I think your assumption that average people will be able to get into machine learning is just naive.

It's the same situation as how governments are increasing education levels by pumping out bogus degrees with zero real life use.

The border being all but closed for ages, except to returning kiwis, created a real problem on top of the problem that you describe which has existed in my sector for quite some time. Get this, trying to hire senior people into high paid roles (range $150k - $220k).. went to market 13 times for 7 different roles, placed only one person and they turned out to be useless. Took on some grads as well recently, apart from being bright young people with high energy and enthusiasm, unfortunately they didn't work out sp well either as the jobs really require lots of experience. Desperate times finding, let alone placing, high calibre talent which just aren't out there looking for jobs. Luring people out of their existing jobs is extremely difficult.

[Panda-NZ-]

It's shame we can't allow for long term contracts with obligations for both sides, so training young people becomes viable.

The "market" is overly transactional at times but its an issue everywhere I suppose.

[artemis]

It's shame we can't allow for long term contracts with obligations for both sides, so training young people becomes viable.

The "market" is overly transactional at times but its an issue everywhere I suppose.

Apprenticeships are usually at least medium term contracts in practice. Rights and responsibilities on each side. Not all employers / employees are a good match so binding contracts just won't always work. At least with apprenticeships there are umbrella organisations eg Skills, that can help sort issues. Trainees / apprentices are mostly young and inexperienced and not in a good position to navigate complex employment issues on their own.

We had direct experience with this in our family, the apprentice's first role was very badly managed on several fronts. Eventually moved to a different employer - better but still issues. Now just out of his time and had several employers come knocking.

[peetter]

It's shame we can't allow for long term contracts with obligations for both sides, so training young people becomes viable.

The "market" is overly transactional at times but its an issue everywhere I suppose.

Problem is companies often see internal growth as cheap labour. I have experience with this on multiple occasions. You learn, get more responsibilities, get promoted, but your salary doesn't grow at the same rate. If you ask for payrise they look at you like you're some kind of alien. So the only way to get your worth is to leave. Having long term contract would probably hurt the employee much more.

[Balance]

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/far...iance-on-china

Lest the politicians forget where & who NZ’s economic well being depend on.

"Free trade with China has also been an essential component in our rapid recovery from the financial effects of the global pandemic.

Dairy exports remained almost unaffected, and farmers enjoyed sustained high prices for their raw milk. For the year ended June 2020, China bought $32.4 billion of the $86.4b worth of goods New Zealand exported: that is a massive 37.5 per cent.

None of this is to say New Zealand should remain silent or bow down to China’s every wish.

Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta struck the right chord when she said the relationship should be one of mutual respect. New Zealand refused to allow Chinese company Huawei to bid for the right to build our 5G cellular network due to well-founded security concerns, and Parliament unanimously declared severe human rights abuses are occurring against the Uyghur people in China’s Xinjiang province.

Despite David Seymour’s headline grabbing statement we absolutely should care about trade, we’re too small not to."

[Zaphod]

The border being all but closed for ages, except to returning kiwis, created a real problem on top of the problem that you describe which has existed in my sector for quite some time. Get this, trying to hire senior people into high paid roles (range $150k - $220k).. went to market 13 times for 7 different roles, placed only one person and they turned out to be useless. Took on some grads as well recently, apart from being bright young people with high energy and enthusiasm, unfortunately they didn't work out sp well either as the jobs really require lots of experience. Desperate times finding, let alone placing, high calibre talent which just aren't out there looking for jobs. Luring people out of their existing jobs is extremely difficult.

Having experienced this issue myself with recruitment, this formed the the key driver for me to move to a role contracting to companies to supply services which I knew they couldn't easily recruit for or which would only justify a fixed term position. High quality talent that are already employed, as you say, aren't looking for new roles despite throwing fairly large remuneration packages at them.

Those that left my former employer often went overseas, particularly to the USA where salaries were 2-3 times what we paid here and with much lower living costs. One of my friends from high school with a PhD ended up working for Amazon earning serious money.