So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

I HAVE a new job. So, too, do a number of other New Zealanders, according to the latest labour market figures. This is a cause to celebrate, though Kiwis sometimes seem to prefer to dwell on the negative than the upside.

During a speech at the recent Business Hall of Fame gala, Prime Minister John Key delighted in point scoring over his Australian counterparts, stressing New Zealand’s 5.6 per cent unemployment was way better than Australia’s 6.4 per cent, its highest in 10 years. He could have rubbed it in more: the misery index, which adds the unemployment rate to the inflation rate as a basic way of measuring economic unhappiness, has Australia at 9 points and New Zealand 20 per cent lower at 7.2. On a worldwide basis, our unemployment rate sits at that of Peru and Venezuela but below that of the US and UK. We can’t crow for long, Australia will rebound.

Drilling down into the Household labour Force Survey for the June quarter, there are a couple of points for further cheer. Employment is up for Pacific peoples by 19.3 per cent - the largest annual movement since the series began in 2007. And the picture is also looking more encouraging for youth. The employment rate for 15 to 19 year olds rose 4 per cent in the June year to 35 per cent although unemployment, while improved, still sits at a high 22 per cent. For 20 to 24-year-olds it has been more steady as she goes.

There are three reasons though why I think Kiwis aren’t yet jumping for joy over the employment stats. ASB’s quarterly regional economic scoreboard confirms the employment rise is only slowly spreading to the

New Zealand’s 5.6% unemployment was way better than Australia’s 6.4%.

regions and some- such as Southland, Taranaki and the Waikato fell backwards in the latest quarter.

That compares to full steam ahead in Canterbury and Auckland, mainly in the construction sector. Secondly, while the unemployment rate is forecast to drop further to 4.5 per cent by 2018, that is still above the 3.5 per cent it hit in December 2007, so as union boss Helen Kelly said ‘‘we can and should do much better’’. And thirdly, the much better job market because of the Canterbury rebuild has caused a migration explosion, with annual net migration gain topping 41,000 people in the July year and predictions it could hit around 50,000 by year’s end. There are positives to that but many of those migrants will need work.

As to the headline, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish is the message the dolphins left when departing Planet Earth just before it was demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass, in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Science fiction nerds now use the phrase as a way of saying goodbye.