Work changing at both ends of the age spectrum
The number of self-employed people over 50 is outpacing the population norm while experts think young people could be poised to change the future of work in New Zealand.
Mōrena and welcome to The Bulletin for Monday, October 3, by Anna Rawhiti-Connell. Presented in partnership with Z Energy.
In today’s edition: Greens want to be inside cabinet; ghost homes no solution to upping housing supply; the collapse of a co-housing dream; but first, what people want from their working life is changing at both ends of the age spectrum.
Workers young and old are rethinking and reimagining work (Image: Getty)
Employers turning to younger and older workers
If we were to do an analysis of media stories at the end of the year, workforce or labour shortages would feature heavily. Speaking to Newstalk ZB last week, Infometrics economist Brad Olsen said employers were turning to younger and older workers to try and fill the gaps. Border closures and New Zealanders heading off for their OEs are undoubtedly causes of the current workforce shortage but of the changes still shaking out after the last two and half years, the reevaluation of work looks to be one that will last. And it’s happening at both ends of the age spectrum in New Zealand.
Growing number of older workers becoming entrepreneurs
When we think about entrepreneurs, we tend to think about younger people. A new study by Massey University has found that an increasing number of senior members of the workforce are becoming entrepreneurs. From March 2019 to September 2021, there was an increase of 9.7% in people over the age of 50 classified as self employed, with no employees. Total growth in the under 50 age group for the same time period was 1.7%. The study’s authors are calling for more support to assist workers transition into self-employment. “While the ageing of the workforce is often conceptualised as a problem, there are in fact opportunities and benefits to all of society in maximising the participation of older New Zealanders in the workforce,” said Massey’s Fiona Alpass.
Organisations will need to rethink top-down management models
While the term “quiet quitting” might have done its dash, Massey University's Zoë Port says younger workers wanted different things than previous generations. Mary O’Keeffe of business coaching firm Greaterthan, said employers may need to make fundamental shifts to the way they operate to make the most of the younger generation. That means rethinking traditional “top-down” models of management. I’ve popped a good long read at the bottom this morning about Generation Z and their willingness to contemplate more radical reform that is relevant to this discussion.
Council of Trade Unions wants comprehensive pilot of four-day work week
Beyond the current workforce shortage crisis, work and the future of it, is shaping up to be an election issue. The Council of Trade Unions (CTU) has floated a series of ideas it says would improve worker and national wellbeing, tackle climate change, housing, work-life balance, and economic equity. It's backing the idea of a comprehensive pilot of the four-day work week. The ideas are part of the CTU’s new economic development strategy called “Building a Better Future” and it will travel the country for the next six months consulting on it. "We reject a future in which we simply return to all the problems we had before - such as homelessness, inequality and economic insecurity," said CTU economist Craig Renney.
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Green party co-leader wants the party inside cabinet
It’s a moot point this far out from the next election, but James Shaw is getting the party’s ducks in a row for any potential coalition negotiations now. The 1 News-Kantar poll last week put National in a governing position in coalition with the Act party, but most commentators agree it will be a tight race next year. In an interview with the Herald’s Thomas Coughlan, Shaw says he wants the party’s ministers inside cabinet. For the last two terms, Green party ministers have sat outside cabinet. Shaw said the next term of government was particularly important for the Greens because, over the next three years, a number of significant climate change decisions come up for renewal.
We now know we can’t live in your ghost homes
After an investigation into “ghost homes”, the government has scrapped a plan to try and fill them. Ghost homes are homes which are unoccupied for a long period of time. There was an idea that filling them could help bolster the country’s rental housing supply. A $500,000 study was commissioned only to find the number of true “ghost homes” was low. Of the 95,000 empty dwellings across Aotearoa, only 10% were being kept intentionally empty. The rest fall into the category of holiday or second homes, currently vacant rentals or homes undergoing renovation. A Ministry of Housing and Urban Development spokesperson said there was no “low-hanging fruit” to make empty homes available as rental properties.
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The difficulties of trying to innovate the way we build homes
To ghost homes of another kind - the ones people wanted to build but couldn’t. Max Rashbrooke looks at two cohousing projects in Wellington, one successful, the other not. Speaking to both parties it seems as if cohousing, a semi-communal housing model, falls between a few cracks in New Zealand. One of the residents of the successful project, Tania Sawicki Mead said getting a building loan took eight months because “the group weren’t a conventional one-home, nuclear-family customer, nor could they be classed as commercial developers.” Bronwen Newton, who spearheaded the unsuccessful attempt at another cohousing project said that for developers, “the project sat awkwardly between the familiar profitable territory of stand-alone houses and 80-unit apartment blocks,” and few developers were willing to take on the job.
Click and collect
Employee contributions to the proposed social unemployment insurance scheme will likely be subject to GST.
GP appointments are still proving hard to get.
Hurricane Ian, one of the most powerful storms to hit the US has caused widespread destruction. So why are homes still standing in the Florida city of Punta Gorda?
As a known loss leader for the retail giant, rotisserie chickens are very popular at Costco, but they were too hot to handle at the newly opened Auckland store yesterday.
A ban on more single-use plastics came into force on Saturday, catching some by surprise.
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Rugby World Cup attendance set to break records
The record for attendance at a women’s sports event in New Zealand was set in 2008. It was a Fifa Under-17 women’s world cup final between North Korea and the United States. Held at North Harbour stadium, 16,162 people attended. Nearly double that are guaranteed to attend the Rugby World Cup opening day at Eden Park this Saturday, including yours truly. Still a week to go so there's a good chance it will be a sell-out. Stuff’s Andrew Voerman outlines why that’s significant and why it may represent a new era for women’s sport.
Generation Z - the “pyrrhic victors” of globalisation
Matthew Goodwin is a professor of politics at Kent University and a commissioner with the United Kingdom's social mobility commission. He’s also got a great newsletter on Substack. I’m usually a bit wary of attempts to broadly summarise generational traits or trends (see “quiet quitting”) but his analysis of why Generation Z will usher in “a cultural revolution” is worth a read. Goodwin looks at how Gen Z’s politics are shifting and how their parents’ politics have influenced them. He argues that they have a much bigger appetite for radical reform - as the “pyrrhic victors” of globalisation. They’re “a generation that on the one hand is playing by the rules but which, on the other, is failing to reap the expected benefits.”
