Massey Documents by Type

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/294

Browse

Filters

1993 - 20003

Settings

Subject: search.filters.subject.Labour market

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Changing employment under a changing mode of development : with special reference to Palmerston North : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Geography at Massey University, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 1993) O'Neill, Caroline
    The old Fordist mode of development is being replaced by a Flexible mode of development. A new regime of accumulation, modes of regulation and technologies are being formed giving rise to new ways of organising business. Firms are restructuring to maintain profitability and this is having profound effects on labour and the way we work. Employment is becoming more casualised through increased use of part-time, temporary and sub-contracted labour. New social groups are being brought into the workforce and new productive spaces are being created to complement a flexible business organisation. At a regional level, the experiences are dependent upon historical and geographical conditions which give rise to regional uniqueness. Palmerston North displays regional uniqueness in terms of a high dependence on the Government sector and on service industries. It is aided by its geographical location and amenities such as Massey University. However, because of its place in a capitalist nation and global economy it is subject to similar forces that affect other regions thereby producing similar employment patterns. Such employment patterns include a decline in full-time employment with rises in part-time employment, self-employment and unemployment. Those employed in the service industry are increasing along with those employed in managerial or administrative occupations. Manufacturing employment is decreasing. These trends are reshaping work and regions.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The New Right's employment impacts on Pacific peoples within the Porirua area and their responses to the initiatives set-up to promote education and ultimately employment : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Development Studies at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2000) Elise, James Tavita
    This thesis examines the concepts of development encapsulated in the New Right ideological spectrum. More specifically this thesis focuses on the impacts of employment deregulation and responses to these effects on Pacific populations in urban Aotetora/ New Zealand. It investigates the role neo-liberalism has played since the 1984 Labour government and the subsequent 1990 National government, which many have argued coincided with the breakdown and apparently permanent collapse of Keynesian social and economic policies of the post-war era. Neo-liberalism is an economic and political project that is primarily concerned with promoting a free market economy. It is based on the principles of individualism, rationalism, flexibility and supply-side innovation manifested in the following ways: 1.) the liberalisation of competitive market forces; 2.) the abandonment of demand-side intervention in favour of supply-side policy measures; 3.) the rejection of both social partnership and welfarism; and 4.) the rejection of 'full-employment' and the liberalisation of the labour market. Some well-known neo-liberal projects have been Thatcherism (UK), Reaganism (US) and Rogernomics (NZ). The responses taken from the research participants illustrate the impacts the New Right development approach has had on this community living in New Zealand, and more specifically living in the Porirua area. Unemployment was seen to place socio-economic stress on the individual and Pacific family unit. These broad New Right concepts which underpin a more flexible labour market are reduced-down to the current community-based employment initiatives being used, the responses and benefits of such development projects to this area, and to exemplify the disparities in the employment sector for Pacific peoples. The impacts: The macro-level results of this thesis have shown that the New Zealand labour market has been transformed into an individualist and flexible labour environment based on contractual agreements. Pacific peoples labour market participation rates have increased in part-time work and in the service sector, however, this has been offset by large decreases in the manufacturing sector. Pacific peoples have higher unemployment rates when compared to other ethnic groups (with the exception of New Zealand Maori). The responses: The micro-level findings have shown that Private Training Establishments (in this case TOPEC) provide a 'seamless' education system for an individualist, flexible and contractual labour market. In conclusion, the impacts and the responses from Pacific peoples involved in the New Zealand labour market demonstrate that the path being used to close labour market disparities are based on industry training and student-centred approaches.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Male breadwinner households and work : alterations in the transition to a liberal welfare regime : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Social Policy at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 1997) Barrett, Patrick Neville
    This thesis examines how the nexus between households and work in New Zealand has been altered by the transition from a wage earner cum social expenditure welfare regime to a liberal welfare regime. The proposition that welfare regimes are characterised by distinctive institutional arrangements and labour market outcomes is explored at the micro-level through household life and work histories. Life and work history data from a small number of Palmerston North male breadwinner households was used to examine the way individuals' lives have been affected by the institutional context at distinctive historical epochs. The thesis discusses the implications for household labour market activity and experience in each regime. Strong cultural and normative continuities are noted despite the trend towards dual earner households. Variation in the potential for labour market mobility across regimes is observed in terms of changing opportunities for skill acquisition. Change in the experience of unemployment and subsequent labour supply responses is examined. Increasing employment insecurity is found to be an outcome of increasing risk of job loss, declining levels of input into jobs and declining levels of protection from adversity in employment relationship. With fewer employment opportunities in the liberal regime, yet with increasing welfare selectivism, the nexus between households and work is found to be characterised by a greater level of income necessity. Households' responses include the supply of "additional" labour - an added-worker effect - whereby they take whatever work can be found, often lower paid and with poor conditions. The examination at the micro-level of how household labour market activity and experience had been altered by the transition to the liberal regime was found to enhance the understanding of change in the interface between work and welfare.