2002 Acs Ict Australian Employment Survey example essay topic

Australian financial review March 11, 2003 Tuesday SECTION: Computers; Pg. 34 LENGTH: 407 words HEADLINE: Official IT Unemployment Data 'way Off The Mark' BYLINE: Mandy Bryan BODY: Is unemployment in the technology sector 11.9 per cent as claimed by the Australian Computer Society, or 3.8 per cent as claimed by the federal government using its official employment statistics? Unemployed technology workers have argued that most of their unemployed counterparts did not show up in the official statistics. They said most were ineligible for unemployment benefits because they were supported by their partners or worked part-time. Moreover, because many of the jobless in the IT sector were over the age of 40, their assets alone, which usually included equity in the family home, usually disqualified them. This was the status of Graham Owens, who is in his 50's and who was retrenched from the IT department at Qantas two years ago. "I know no one who has signed on for the dole", Mr Owens said.

"I went in but the amount of information they required was enormous. In the end I didn't bother as I knew I wouldn't be eligible". Mr Owens has since moved into a new career in bookkeeping, rendering him even more invisible to the statisticians. He believes a more accurate source of IT unemployment levels would be found in the earnings data gathered by the Australian Taxation Office. According to an IT manager who recently returned to the workforce and who preferred to be known only as Dan, no one in his IT network had been able to claim benefits because of their status as contractors. He said IT contractors generally set up their own companies which were means tested by the government according to their income for the previous year.

In order to claim benefits, he said, their alternatives included waiting until the end of the financial year or closing their companies which would prevent them from entering into further contracts. Adding to the problem, unemployed senior managers were reluctant to speak up, said Paul Jesse, a former Oz Email project manager who has been seeking full time employment for 18 months. "There are so many people out there but you never see them or hear them because they are ashamed to admit they are unemployed", he said. Some, he noted, found their daily trip to the office such a hard habit to break they still visited outplacement centres every day, even 18 months after they were made redundant.

"It's hard to sit at home and be unemployed", he said. Mr Jesse added that the Howard government's refusal to acknowledge the problem compounded the issue. Australian financial review LOAD-DATE: March 10, 2003 SECTION: News; Pg. 19 LENGTH: 560 words HEADLINE: US Job Losses Likely To Force Fed Rate Cut BYLINE: Luke Collins New York BODY: America lost more jobs last month than any period since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, confirming the world's biggest economy has stalled, and lifting expectations of interest rate cuts. Some 308,000 non-agricultural workers lost jobs in February as the unemployment rate rose from 5.7 per cent to 5.8 per cent. The percentage of unemployed people who have been without work for six months or more hit 22.1 per cent, an 11-year high. The gloomy news capped a month of poor data and prompted several Wall Street economists to predict the US Federal Reserve would cut official interest rates at its meeting on March 18.

The biggest investment houses to make that claim were Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan, which had expected the Federal Open Market Committee to next week stand firm and leave the federal funds target rate at 1.25 per cent. Both now tip a 25 basis point cut. "Given this morning's surprisingly weak employment report and the fact that growth will be barely 1 per cent in the first quarter, we now expect the Fed to ease 25 basis points at the March 18 meeting, followed by another 25 basis points on May 6", said Merrill Lynch's chief North American economist, David Rosenberg. "This lowers the funds rate to 75 basis points, the lowest the Fed is likely to go. Thereafter, if further stimulus is needed, we believe the Fed will start buying intermediate and long-term Treasury securities". However, trading in federal funds futures still only rates the possibility of a cut on March 18 at 38 per cent and many other economists are hopeful the US economy will quickly rebound once the military situation with Iraq is resolved.

Certainly, no one last year expected America to now be in this position. For the bulk of 2002, talk among economists was about when interest rates would begin rising and many expected that process would have begun by now. Yet the likelihood of war with Iraq and the prolonged general strike in Venezuela has pushed oil prices towards $US 40 a barrel, sending energy costs sharply higher across the US at a time when demand is high due to an unusually cold winter. In addition, the lingering after-effects of the bursting of the technology bubble appear to be more severe than many had predicted, particularly in terms of over-capacity, which has significantly curtailed business investment at a time when it is needed to compensate for flagging consumer spending. "You have to assume there are still some serious problems with this economy", a market strategist at State Street Corp, Bill Strazzullo, told The Wall Street Journal. He said at this point in a recovery "this should not be happening".

For America's growing unemployment queues, the problem is that economic growth is not strong enough to begin generating jobs. Opinion is divided as to whether further cuts in interest rates will turn that around. Those interest rate cuts the federal funds target rate has fallen from 6.5 per cent to 1.25 per cent since May 2000 have significantly boosted demand in the interest rate-sensitive sectors of housing and automobile sales. However, there is concern that Americans can buy only so many new cars and refinance so many mortgages.

The chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, last week said he expected refinancing activity to slow and home prices to possibly fall. sun herald - sydney LOAD-DATE: March 9, 2003 SECTION: Business; Pg. 2 LENGTH: 319 words HEADLINE: Unemployment Figures Tipped To Tumble Again BYLINE: By John Syn nott BODY: GOOD news on jobs is expected this week, in line with our world-beating economic growth. Economists are predicting the unemployment rate will dip below 6 per cent this year. Unemployment has been tracking at 6-6.2 per cent, a 10-year low. Access Economics' head Chris Richardson sees it improving to 5.8 per cent this year. In the past decade, nearly 2 million jobs have been created. In recent months the Bureau of Statistics has reported very strong jobs growth in Australia really too strong to be believed as it alters its survey methods.

"The last few figures especially 111,000 new jobs in January does not really happen, unfortunately", says Commonwealth Research chief economist Michael Blythe. While "true" jobs growth is less than the headline figures suggest, the economy clearly hit the ground running at the start of 2003. "I think employment has strengthened and that reflects a greater optimism by employers about the Australian economy", said HSBC economist John Edwards. "As is when you have a prolonged period of growth after a downturn we had a small downturn in 2001 you get employment increases". The economy has created 400,000 new jobs in the past 15 months. "That's quite a reasonable rate", he said.

The number of unemployed has gone down as the number of jobs has gone up, despite more people joining the workforce. "It's good for the people who get the new jobs, and for household spending and overall GDP", Edwards said. Quarterly GDP figures released during the week added up to a very solid 3.8 per cent growth in 2002. Blythe says many of the factors that allowed the Australian economy to outperform in the past 18 months remain in place: interest rates are low, the labour market is in good shape, household wealth and the terms of trade are still rising, and the dollar is still on the competitive side of its longer-run average. That's good news for jobs. LOAD-DATE: March 9, 2003 The Advertiser March 8, 2003 Saturday SECTION: EMPLOYMENT; Pg.

E 06 LENGTH: 435 words HEADLINE: Executive Appointments; Concern over IT jobless BODY: UNEMPLOYMENT in the Information and Communications Technology sector is running at nearly twice the national average, according to research by the Australian Computer Society. The ICT professional society recently released the results of the 2002 ACS ICT Australian Employment Survey, based on research conducted with ACS members into a range of employment-related issues. Conducted on behalf of the ACS by Peter Hind, a researcher of many years experience who runs technology analyst IDC's annual Forecast for Management survey of CIOs, the survey attracted 889 responses from across Australia. They revealed that: ICT unemployment among ACS members is 11.9 per cent, almost double the national average of 6.1 per cent. Unemployment increases significantly among older and more experienced professionals, reaching nearly 13 per cent for those in the age bands of 36-40 and 51-55, although the rate fell for professionals aged between these two periods. A significant proportion (43.7 per cent) of those affected come from the traditionally more stable industry sectors of banking and finance, consulting and the public sector.

More than half (52.3 per cent) of unemployment professionals list their ICT skills as being in programming, business analysis and project management. Unemployment is higher among women, at 12.3 per cent. ACS national president Richard Hogg says the survey findings highlight the need for urgent action by all stakeholders to work together to help the ICT sector grow and create employment opportunities for ICT professionals. "Politicians of all persuasions, including our Prime Minister, have pointed to ICT as being the future but it will be a bleak future indeed if we don't take steps to revitalise this key industry sector. "How can Australia hope to build up the industries of the future and be globally competitive if we cannot engage those skill sets today?

"The ACS will do whatever it can to assist members in improving their employment situation and we are talking with industry bodies as well as governments at all levels on broader initiatives designed to stimulate growth". The report seeks to encourage discussion about possible schemes, outlining a number of proposals, such as assistance to help retrain unemployed professionals, an infrastructure to help ICT professionals to network more effectively and reducing the cost of ACS-provided training. Mr Hogg says the 2002 ACS ICT Australian Employment Survey will become an annual study to provide on-going information on trends on employment issues. LOAD-DATE: March 7, 2003 Australian Financial Review February 10, 2003 Monday SECTION: News; International News; Pg. 12 LENGTH: 306 words HEADLINE: Drop In Jobless Rate Could Be Blip, Say US Economists BYLINE: Luke Collins New York BODY: America's unemployment rate unexpectedly improved last month, but economists are warning the drop could be a statistical quirk. The national rate fell from 6 per cent in December to 5.7 per cent last month after the service industry added 143,000 jobs. The outcome was much better than expected by economists, who tipped the rate to remain steady or perhaps fall to 5.9 per cent.

A senior strategist at Mizuho Securities USA, John Vail, said the data "seems quite skewed."It would be possible to say, however, that unless this data is hugely off-mark, the labour market is not deteriorating as much as the anecdotal evidence seems to be suggesting", Mr Vail said. Other economists agreed the jobless figures indicated more of a stabilisation of the employment market rather than an improvement, noting a huge fall in retail sector jobs in December had been followed by a big increase. In addition, average hourly earnings showed no increase for the first time in almost a decade and average hours worked rose, indicating employers were squeezing more from existing workers rather than adding staff. Perhaps more encouraging from a broad economic perspective was data showing Americans in December paid off debt at the fastest pace in almost 10 years, slashing the nation's record consumer borrowings by $US 4 billion ($6.8 billion) to $US 1.722 trillion. Some $US 8.4 billion was paid off credit card debt, the fastest decline since December 1975. Non-revolving credit which includes loans for cars and other goods jumped by $US 4.4 billion.

The net decline in household borrowings heartened some economists. But that good news is tempered by the fact repayment typically means funds that would usually be spent have been redirected, and the economy has been propped up by consumer spending for two years. LOAD-DATE: February 9, 2003 Sydney Morning Herald January 31, 2003 Friday SECTION: News And Features; Pg. 5 LENGTH: 520 words HEADLINE: Welfare Agencies Struggle As Millions Seek Help BYLINE: Adele Hor in BODY: Increasing numbers of disadvantaged Australians are seeking help from welfare and housing agencies despite a healthy economy and modest unemployment rate. A survey of 685 community agencies by the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) has revealed that the agencies helped 2.3 million people in 2001-02 a 12 per cent rise in the past financial year. But more people are also being denied services because the hard-pressed agencies do not have the resources to help. Faced with higher operating costs especially rising insurance premiums and increased demand, the agencies turned away almost 181,000 people, an increase of 19 per cent.

The annual survey, called Australians Living on the Edge, was released in Melbourne yesterday. It indicates Australia's strong economic performance has failed to reach people at the bottom of the ladder, says the president of ACOSS, Andrew McCallum. "The economy has gone gang-busters for 10 years but that doesn't mean everyone does well", he said. "Certain sections have done extremely well; income has grown at the top but we have not seen a corresponding growth at the bottom". The survey covers a range of community agencies, including disability, aged care, crisis, family support and housing. Most rely upon state and federal grants.

Housing agencies in particular are under stress, being unable to provide a service to almost 30 per cent of people who sought help in 2001-02, the survey shows. Increasingly, agencies have turned to volunteers to try to meet the demand. But the survey points to concerns that many volunteers are inadequately trained. As well, agencies also increasingly relied on unpaid staff overtime, waiting lists and more tightly targeted services to cope with the pressures. The survey shows rising operating costs, particularly insurance, are putting intense pressure on agencies. More than 65 per cent of the agencies surveyed said they paid more for insurance in 2002-03 than in the previous financial year, with an average increase of $5287.

Almost 30 per cent were refused insurance cover, although the average number of insurance claims per agency was 1.1. As well, some reported that a government policy in social security or housing had contributed to the pressure they were under. John Falcon, national research officer for St Vincent de Paul, said the social security breaching policy, under which welfare recipients lose a portion or all their entitlements for rule infractions, had caused particular hardship. "It denies people the means of survival and forces them to seek assistance from charities.

This is what we " ve particularly noticed". A domestic violence service cited in the report said it had experienced a dramatic rise in the cost of phone calls due to contacting people with mobile phones. The acting Minister for Family and Community Services, Larry Anthony, said the ACOSS methodology was questionable. "With low unemployment, low interest rates, strong economic growth and billions of extra dollars in family payments, the Coalition Government has a strong record in assisting households".

LOAD-DATE: January 30, 2003 The Australian January 20, 2003, Monday All-round Country Edition SECTION: FEATURES-TYPE- LEADER-COLUMN- LEADER; Pg. 14 LENGTH: 498 words HEADLINE: Break the back of unemployment SOURCE: MAP BODY: ECONOMIC news rarely gets better than last week's figures that showed 52,000 more Australians got jobs in December. For all of 2002, the number was 276 000, the biggest rise since the boom of 1989. It was a fitting end to 10 years of economic improvement. More than 1.8 million more Australians were in work last month than had jobs in December 1992, nearly halving the unemployment rate from 10.7 per cent to 6.1 per cent.

Even better, the winners in the new employment figures are women, particularly mature women, returning to the workforce after child rearing. A less regulated and more flexible job market, then, is family-friendly, because it provides scope for people in their 30's and 40's to return to paid employment after an extended break from the workforce. Clearly, business values mature mothers as workers for their track record of reliability and productivity. The employment numbers also give lie to all the suggestions that the achievements of the past 10 years were won at the expense of ordinary Australian workers.

Certainly in many cases we are working harder but we are also working much smarter and most importantly, more of us are working. As a result, Australia has had the best economic growth rate among the world's advanced economies for more than a decade. Yet ACTU president Sharan Burrow greeted the news of last month's jobs growth with the suggestion that the increase in numbers of working women demonstrated the need to achieve "a balance" between work and family. If this is code for fewer hours for more money or more centralised regulation of the labour market, Ms Burrow is proposing to kill off the very productivity increases that have generated the new jobs. The idea that the growth of the 1990's was in some way retrograde ignores the fact that the inevitable integration of Australia into the global economy unavoidably changed the nature of work and labour demand.

Certainly the future is not particularly promising for some people, particularly older men who are unable or unwilling to learn new skills, but it is very bright for workers with portable skills who enjoy the options and variety that short-term contracts and a mix of part-time jobs provides. Yet the good news on employment growth is still not enough to make inroads into the stubborn and lingering hard core of joblessness that has blighted Australia for the past quarter of a century. After taming the curse of inflation in the 1990's, we now need to concentrate on getting unemployment well below 6 per cent. As a national goal, we need to get back to something like what we used to call "full employment". To do this, we need to keep economic reform continuing, rather than seek to re-regulate the job market in the name of "the family". We need to upgrade the skills of the less skilled.

And we need to exploit the emerging political consensus that we need to do something about the tax and welfare structures that penalize the unemployed for getting a job. LOAD-DATE: January 19, 2003.