Employment


Employment on the move

Today’s 20-somethings can expect to change jobs four times before they’re 30 and 10 times before they’re 40, says John Zogby who asks what this technology-enabled transience means for community, housing and even children.

Four million reasons to doubt the jobless data

For the first time the ABS has released a monthly underemployment estimate, with total hours worked dropping for the 13th month in a row. So the economic narrative continues, good news but things remain fragile.

Say goodbye to the cubicle

Thinking of quitting your office job and doing something on your own? “This is your handbook.” Trent Hamm reviews the “essential” book for the working unhappy, Escape from Cubicle Nation.

Map: work hours around the world

Feel like you work too much? Well, according to this map of average world weekly work hours — say that three times! — Australians work less than the Greeks but more than the Dutch.

How many hours did Australians work this month?

How many hours did the nation work in July? Just over 1.5 billion hours in total, says Possum Comitatus. It sounds like a lot, but through the magic of graphs, we can see the average amount of hours worked per month has actually been trending downwards for at least a decade.

It’s a good time to be dispensing drugs

While wages for investment banking associates have dropped by 30-40% in America’s recession, some professions are on the up in the downturn. And at the top of the pile: pharmacy.

Your unpronounceable surname could cost you that job

A new study has found wide-spread labour market discrimination against people with foreign names when applying for jobs in Australia.

The problem with Russian productivity

Every employed Russian contributes only $16,100 to the country’s gross domestic product, compared with $38,100 in South Africa, $48,600 in Greece, $59,400 in France and $74,600 in the United States.

Political snippets: Find the correct unemployment number

Richard Farmer un-fudges the unemployment figures and welcomes the return of Jeff Kennett to Page One, where his hair belongs.

The IT industry’s rampant age discrimination

High-tech companies are saving money by ignoring midcareer programmers and only hiring new or recent graduates, leading to an IT career “half-life” of only a few years.

Will Fast Food award deny youth jobs?

Changes to the Fast Food Industry Award will make it more expensive to hire young workers. Michael Stutchbury claims it’s “madness”.

AFL coaches’ contracting concerns

A look at each the future of the AFL’s current coaches under the notoriously fickle contract conditions.

OECD: Unemployment and chaos will rock the world

Jobs, rather the lack of them, is going to be the big issue of the next couple of years, writes Glenn Dyer.

Note to Turnbull: make your own luck

Turnbull is actually conducting serious consultations with communities, rather than the gimmicks beloved by Rudd, but they are almost entirely beneath the media radar, writes Bernard Keane.

Rudd wants jobs for blackfellas, just not in the public service

While Kevin Rudd is waxing lyrical to corporate Australia about the merits of hiring a blackfella, the ‘corporation’ he’s in charge of – the APS – is driving them away, writes Chris Graham.

Real jobs at Yuendumu – blown away with the Yunparlara

It now looks that Kurdu-kurdu Child Care Centre will close its doors in two weeks – why? – well, it is a bit hard to tell at the moment, writes Bob Gosford.

US job market marks a course for the doldrums

US job numbers show an economy slowing rapidly, writes Glenn Dyer.

The Forrest plan: have they thought this through?

The Forrest plan to create employment opportunities for 50,000 Indigenous Australians has its risks, writes Professor Jon Altman.

ALP’s Participation Taskforce has all the wrong participants

With labour shortages possibly fuelling wage demands, increasing the participation rate for paid workers seems like a good idea. So why is the Rudd government only Welfare to Work groups? asks Eva Cox.

There are two million Australians out of work. That’s the truth.

The official unemployment figure are bunk, writes Marcus L’Estrange