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    Journeys towards employment : the experiences of young adults in the Maldives : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Development Studies at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2007) Shaugee, Farzana
    In a similar situation to most countries in the world, unemployment is rising in the Maldives and it is noticeable that more and more young adults are struggling to achieve gainful, productive employment. There are several difficulties and barriers faced by the young adults of today, before they even take their fist crucial step into the labour market. This research aims to identify these barriers faced by young adults in the employment process. To achieve this, the research conducted exploration in order to obtain an in-depth understanding into the experiences of urban young adults in the Maldives, who were in the process of finding and securing jobs. The methodology used in the research process was qualitative in nature with the use of individual interviews and focus group discussions, in order to achieve a close, in-depth view into the employment experiences of these young adults. The researched explored and identified several barriers to urban youth unemployment. Amongst the barriers to employment, the most common themes identified were in relation to educational achievements and discrimination. This study also identified several changes emphasised as important by the young participants in the research. They believe these changes are necessary, to combat the barriers that they face and they will also enhance better employment opportunities in the future.
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    Profiling long-term unemployment utilising the logit model : a New Zealand case study : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Applied Economics at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2001) Thompson, V. Wesley
    This study attempts to fit the logit model to a random sample of data compiled by the New Zealand Employment Service on individuals who have completed unemployment spells, over the period 1988-1997. The objective is to estimate the probability that an individual job seeker, with a certain set of personal attributes, will become long-term unemployed. The regression results are consistent with a priori expectations. However, the predictive power of the model is low, lending support to conclusions from other empirical studies that have used other approaches to modelling long-term unemployment in New Zealand. That is, the current set of personal attributes on which data arc collected in New Zealand are inadequate for modelling long-term unemployment.
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    Land of milk and-- gas? Economic change and its social consequences in 1980s Taranaki : a regional history : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2002) Towers, Richard John
    In the minds of most New Zealanders the 1980s will be remembered as a decade of immense change and upheaval. In 1980 New Zealand was a fortress economy, with high tariffs and key industries heavily subsidised and sometimes owned by the government. 1 1 Brian Easton, The Commercialisation of New Zealand, Auckland, Auckland University Press, 1997, p.6. By 1990 the walls of that fortress had largely been removed. 2 2 Jane Kelsey, The New Zealand Experiment: A world model for structural adjustment?, Auckland, Auckland University Press with Bridget Williams Books, 1995, p.99. In 1980 the National government led by Robert Muldoon was pushing ahead its policy of energy development, borrowing and spending billions of dollars in the process.3 3 Easton, p.18. By the 1990s New Zealand was firmly in the grip of neo-liberal economic thinking, with government spending cuts, user pays, and market deregulation the driving forces behind government and the economy. 4 4 Kelsey, p.1. The beginning of the decade saw increasing concern over the growing number of unemployed. Employment was a prime issue in the 1981 election campaign. After the Labour government took office following the 1984 snap election, unemployment was reaching the five percent mark and was predicted to climb further. 5 5 Simon Collins, Rogernomics: Is there a better way?, Wellington, Pitman Publishing, 1987, p.26. By the 1990 election unemployment had grown so high in some regions that a level of five percent looked like a desirable yet impossible target. Indeed, even today in what appear to be prosperous times for New Zealand we have still not attained a level of unemployment as low as that which was facing New Zealand in the early 1980s. It says much of what occurred both economically and politically through the 1980s that we now view what was once seen as an unthinkably high level of national unemployment as remarkably low. The decade was a period which altered the relationship between New Zealanders and the governments elected by them. Nobody was left untouched by the processes of transformation. Where New Zealand once prided itself on being a country that led the world on issues of social welfare, it became one leading the world in market driven economic change. 6 6 Kelsey, p.1. All facets of society were effected from the social to the cultural. The governments of New Zealand began the 1980s as New Zealand's major employer and reluctant deregulators, and finished the decade having corporatised and sold many state assets, affecting thousands of jobs along the way. From being a protected economy, relying partly on import substitution to maintain employment, New Zealand became, in world terms, an open economy importing many new and cheaper products, changing the life styles and spending habits of many. 7 7 Easton, p.6. By the close of the decade the government was actively seeking to play less of a role in the lives of New Zealanders.
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    Unemployment in New Zealand, 1875-1914 : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Economics at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1976) Campbell, Robert James
    Unemployment, although a common feature of economic and social life in colonial New Zealand, has received little attention from historians or economists for the period before 1920. While construction of a reliable index of unemployment is not possible from available data, an intensive analysis of published and other official sources establishes the significance of unemployment. The decade of the 1880's, following as it did years of large scale immigration and marked as it was by little overall economic growth, drew attention to the insecurity of employment for many skilled and unskilled workmen. Agitation, though evidenced frequently enough was not sufficient in the absence of an organised labour movement, to move policy. Nevertheless as part of an overall move towards a regulative role in many economic and social spheres, Government formalised procedures for coping with unemployment. The activities of the Labour Bureaux in assisting unemployed to find jobs became an important part of the labour market, and assisted the co-operative works scheme of completing necessary public works. The thesis suggests that it is this regulative approach of Government which is the significant feature. Other periods and societies have had a more welfare-oriented approach to unemployment. The ideology of work in a growing colonial economy was fiercely against any form of pauperisation, or even long term support. Unemployment, apart from apparent cyclical influences in the 1880's and less certainly 1903-1907, was largely of a seasonal or frictional variety. Availability of seasonal work in areas surrounding most towns absorbed even skilled workmen who lacked employment for summer months. However, winter and any slackening of public construction works, brought high levels of unemployment to many towns. Often, these problems were exacerbated by new immigrants entering the job market. Because the fluctuations in employment were so localised, the efforts of the Labour Department in developing a national labour market were appropriate though not uniformly successful. These efforts were not geared to find skilled employment where this was desired in many cases, nor was female unemployment adequately catered for. Assisting mobility and identifying employment opportunities were important contributions of the Department of Labour. Government also played a limited role as an employer of unemployment workers. No government of the period, central or local, was clearly and unambiguously in favour of providing work as a means of combatting unemployment. Although the co-operative works system had as one of its functions the provision of a "buffer" for male unemployment, the system cannot be considered purely as a relief work mechanism. The last two decades of the period are marked by the articulation and implementation of the problems and policies identified during the 1880's.
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    Unemployment : some aspects of the New Zealand experience, 1960-1981 : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Economics
    (Massey University, 1984) Hicks, John Robert Llewellyn
    In the late 1960s both Friedman and Phelps argued that there existed a "natural" rate of unemployment which could not be reduced in the long run through an expansion of demand without accelerating inflation. The co-existence of rising unemployment and spiralling inflation throughout much of the 1970s was seen as evidence in support of the propositions of Friedman and Phelps and led to the conclusion that the natural rate of unemployment had risen and was continuing to rise. Theoretical support was provided by the development of job-search theory which attributed the rise in unemployment to rational, voluntary decisions on the part of the unemployed. This thesis examines the unemployment experience of New Zealand. over the period 1960-1981 in the context of the job-search model. That New Zealand has an unemployment problem is established in Part One by a comparative study of New Zealand data with that from seven other industrialized nations. This study also depicts the pattern of New Zealand's unemployment experience and shows it to be in keeping with the search model as it is subsequently developed in Part Two. Our representation of the search model enables us to identify a number of tests of search in the New Zealand context and these are conducted in Part Three. Not unexpectedly the empirical analysis is hindered by the paucity of labour force data in New Zealand. Although some attempt is made to adjust the data to meet our needs this is only partially successful and care must therefore be taken in interpreting the results. In general we find that there is some evidence for the existence of the phenomenon of search in the New Zealand labour market but that its contribution to the rise in unemployment since the mid 1970s is negligible.
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    Long-term unemployment and mental health in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1992) Pernice, Regina
    Te aim of the present research was to identify environmental features and personal characteristics and their relationship to mental health among long-term unemployed people in New Zealand. Warr's Vitamin Model of unemployment was investigated in a cross-sectional/longitudinal study. In the Main Study 532 people who had been unemployed for at least six months, were surveyed. A wide ranging questionnaire, the General Health Questionnaire 12 (GHQ) and the Rosenberg (1965) Self-Esteem Scale (RSE) were administered. This was followed by an interview in which people selected themselves into 4 groups. One group or 28.6% "wanted employment", 35% felt "not able to work", 27.2% stated having "alternatives to employment" and a small minority of 9.2% were "interested in training". One year later, people from each of the 4 unemployed groups and one group of re-employed people were re-interviewed in the Follow-up Study (N=99). A shortened questionnaire, the GHQ, the RSE and the Hopkins Symptom Checklist 25 (HSCL) were administered. A series of multiple regressions supported Warr's Vitamin Model, as five environmental features were associated with mental health levels in the Main Study and two in the Follow-up Study. A number of personal characteristics were also significant predictors of mental health. Generally, mental health levels of the unemployed were low, but re-employment resulted in significant improvements. The results of the Follow-up Study showed that the percentage of people "wanting employment" and "interested in training" decreased, whereas the group having "alternatives to employment" increased. The group "not able to work" stayed the same in size. Mental health levels were low in the groups "wanting employment" and "interested in training". Extremely low mental health was evident in the group "not able to work". In the group "alternatives to employment" mental health levels were high and more similar to levels observed in the employed group. Several moderator variables of the negative experience of unemployment were tested such as "age", "gender", "marital status" and "stated ethnic origin". The results show that long-term unemployed people are not a homogeneous group and significant differences in mental health exist within sub-groups. Recommendations for future research were made.