Information for parents, family and whanau
A look at the labour market
How has the job market changed over the last 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 market
- Internet integral to business
- Offshore manufacturing
- High cost of training and sizeable student loans
- Modern apprenticeships well embedded and accepted
- Emergence of glamour/trendy industries – professional sport
- Many school students working over 20 hours a week
- Women have very high participation levels in workforce
- More women in the workforce
- Paid parental leave
- Lowest unemployment rates in 25 years
- Employers struggle to fill positions in many industries
- Migrant and refugee communities entering the workforce
- Expectation of lifelong learning
- Greater awareness of values in the workplace
- Greater awareness of work in life balance
- Employers aware of health and safety and employee stress
