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Contact us
Call us on 0800 222 733A look at the labour market - then and now
Find out how the job market has changed over the past 40 to 50 years.
Then - 60s and 70s
- Plenty of work
- No need for qualifications
- Could train on the job
- Lots of apprenticeships
- Government a big employer
- Left school at 15
- Onus on employer to provide training
- Training driven by someone else
- Expected to do 40 years in one job/industry
- Job security
- Families provided the jobs and the contact
- Careers were for men
- A lot less pressure to excel in the job
- Costs of education - universities and polytechs didn't have big fees
- Careers for women were narrow
The 80s
- Early 80s, before sharemarket crash, booming economy, lots of spending by businesses and individuals
- Sharemarket crash had spin offs, such as wage freezes, high unemployment and slump in construction industry
- 40-hour weeks the norm and people still got paid overtime
- Restructuring of public sector – privatisation and redundancies
- Stay at home mums still the norm, but increased opportunities for women in careers, creating the rise in childcare needs
- Decline of apprenticeship training
- The start of the concept that people change their careers a number of times
- More kids were staying at school until Seventh Form
- 'Think Big' projects
- Rogernomics and the selling of government assets
- Small towns declining as large businesses closed
- PCs in the workplace creating opportunities
- Māori Trade Training
10 years ago
- Competition for work
- Higher qualifications required
- Wider job choices
- Rapid change in technology
- Restructuring
- Growth in small businesses and self employment
- Flexibility of work style
- Multi-skilling but not generalists
- Need to check market demands
- Re-emergence of apprenticeships after axing in the late 80s
- Student loan scheme introduced
- Expectation of training before entering a job
- Career – periods of re-training and four or five job changes
Now
- Global job and recruitment market – many New Zealanders working overseas
- Increased use by employers of on-line job applications in job seeking
- 90-day work trials for new employees
- Higher rates of youth unemployment
- NCEA attainment to Level 2 is becoming expected
- Recession has reduced job opportunities in many industries
- High level of technological skills expected of most workers
- Training costs have risen and students have sizeable loans
- Modern apprenticeships well embedded and accepted
- The number of government jobs is reducing
- Increased networking needed by job seekers
- Paid parental leave
- Diverse cultures in New Zealand and in the workplace
- Migrants are recruited for many executive and senior management positions
- Women have very high participation levels in workforce
- Emergence of glamour/trendy industries – professional sport
- Need for on-going learning
- Greater awareness of values, and work-life balance in the workplace
- Employers aware of health and safety and employee stress
- A trend for people to work beyond their retirement age.