Scheme aims to raise standard of insulation in 19m of the UK’s leakiest homes
Labour has said that job opportunities for almost 4 million workers would be created under its plan to bring 19m of the UK’s leakiest homes up to an acceptable standard of insulation.
While it has previously said that the plan would reduce annual household energy bills by up to £500, the party has set out details of what it said would be a major expansion of the retrofitting workforce.
Continue reading...Good Jobs Project from ReGenerate aims to help ex-prisoners, neurodivergent people, asylum seekers and other groups into work
Unemployed ex-offenders are being overlooked for jobs and could help fill the 1.1 million vacancies in the UK job market, a report has claimed.
Britain is “facing one of the worst labour shortages in its history”, the year-long study said, arguing that the vast numbers of people commonly overlooked for jobs should be targeted.
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Albanese takes swipes at the Greens
The Midwinter Ball was held overnight. It seems to have been a fairly staid affair but I am still ferreting out info.
Consulting firm PwC engaged in a “calculated” breach of trust by using confidential information to help its clients avoid tax and engaged in a “deliberate cover-up” over many years, a Senate committee has found.
PwC should be “open and honest” by promptly publishing the names and details of its partners and staff involved, the finance and public administration committee has recommended.
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Liberal senator David Van is speaking to Sydney radio 2GB about independent senator Lidia Thorpe’s allegations in the Senate yesterday.
Thorpe withdrew the remarks to comply with the Senate’s standing orders but said she would be making a statement on the issue today.
Continue reading...The labour market has remained tight since Covid curbed the influx of migrants and foreign students
Australia’s economy shed 27,100 full-time jobs last month, easing concerns that the Reserve Bank may need to hike its interest rate again to curb inflation.
The country’s unemployment rate in April rose to 3.7%, seasonally adjusted, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday, up from a reported 3.5% for March. Economists had forecast it would remain at March’s 3.5% level, close to a half-century low.
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Continue reading...Leaving welfare payments at current rate ‘unconscionable and grossly irresponsible’, says anti-poverty body
The Albanese government remains committed to the $250bn stage-three tax cuts but cannot say whether it will lift the rate of the unemployment payment, despite its own expert committee finding it was now “a barrier to paid work”.
Speaking to ABC’s Insiders on Sunday the finance minister, Katy Gallagher, said the government was reviewing the findings of the economic inclusion committee and the women’s economic equality taskforce, but could not commit to accepting any of the recommendations.
Continue reading...Opposition leader says locals are leaving town and tourism numbers are down due to lack of safety. Follow all the day’s news
If the NDIS is improved for people, it will be better for budget, Shorten says
Shorten is being asked about his other portfolio, minister for NDIS. The Grattan Institute yesterday made several recommendations to help rein in the budget, saying the government need to take a hard look at the NDIS.
If we run the scheme better for the person, the participant, the person with severe and profound disabilities. I also think that some of the other anxieties which are about money being wasted, will be dealt with.
We’ve been reforming individual features of the scheme already like getting people who are medically discharged from hospital on the NDIS, not languishing in hospital for months and months. We’ve been reducing some of the legacy cases.
So the budget will no doubt have measures which will be about improving the NDIS for participants but the budget isn’t an end in itself. So we’re doing work right now. There’ll be more work being done, and there’ll be work also finally announced when the review happens.
The bigger piece first of all, is that when the government thinks that someone owes a debt to the government, we’ve got to have a much more methodical transparent process to establish the accuracy of the debt.
The best thing you can do is not make a mistake to begin with – and I mean the government not make a mistake.
Continue reading...At 3.5% the unemployment rate remains near its lowest since the mid-1970s
Australia’s jobless rate held steady last month, with employers adding more than 72,000 full-time positions in the latest sign of resilience in the Australian economy.
The country’s unemployment rate for March was 3.5%, seasonally adjusted, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday. Taking into account the drop of part-time roles of just over 19,200, the net jobs gain last month was 53,000.
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Continue reading...Expansion in first six months of Albanese government beats record of Kevin Rudd and Bob Hawke administrations
Federal Labor has boasted it has overseen the best jobs growth of any new government in 50 years but chief executives are fearful of finding workers in 2023.
The two sides of the jobs boom in Australia are demonstrated by an analysis released by the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, and a survey commissioned by the Australian Industry Group which found 90% of CEOs expected staffing shortages this year.
Continue reading...People who quit during pandemic may be offered ‘midlife MOT’ as way to address labour shortage
Plans to coax middle-aged retirees back into work to boost the economy are being considered by the government, according to reports.
Older people who have given up work could be offered what is being described as a “midlife MOT” to entice them back into employment, the Times has reported.
Continue reading...The national jobless rate remains at a near 50-year-low as rebounding economy faces labor shortages from lack of migration
Australia’s jobless rate remained steady in November even as the economy added about 2,000 jobs a day, underscoring the tight conditions in the labour market.
The unemployment rate last month was 3.4% with employers taking on 64,000 extra positions, more than half of them full time, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday. Economists from the ANZ and CBA forecast the rate would remain at October’s 3.4% rate with a net increase of about 15-20,000 jobs.
Continue reading...RSA chief executive says more than a century of progress was now going into reverse
The worsening health of the British people is holding back economic growth for the first time since the Industrial Revolution after years of underinvestment in services, Andy Haldane has warned.
The chief executive of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) said more than a century of progress on health and wellbeing was going into reverse, with a direct impact on the economy and the cost of living emergency.
Continue reading...Unemployment has come in at 3.5% for the second month in a row. That’s good news for economic growth – if people have jobs, they’re more likely to spend
September’s jobless figures may have remained steady, but a deeper dive shows the seemingly dull and inert data is worth a closer look.
The labour market numbers from the Australian Bureau of Statistics are, on the face of it, almost as steady as is statistically feasible.
Continue reading...As jobseekers face ‘humiliating’ tasks to maintain payments, vast network of job agencies rakes in hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars
Two words make the money go round in Australia’s multi-billion dollar welfare-to-work industry: mutual obligation.
When someone loses their job and applies for the dole, they are sent to an outsourced job agency to get help looking for work. It triggers a payment to the provider – and the possibility of more to come.
Continue reading...‘Completely around the wrong way’ to allow pensioners to work more without losing pay while jobseeker remains unchanged, advocates say
Increasing the jobseeker rate should take priority over other welfare reforms including allowing aged pensioners to work more without having their payments reduced, peak unemployment bodies say.
A private member’s bill introduced by independent MP Rebekha Sharkie on Monday would increase the income test threshold for pensioners, permitting older Australians to work more hours before their payments were docked.
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Continue reading...Australian Unemployed Workers Union survey reveals challenges for those seeking work, from lack of information to unreasonable demands
Jobseekers have reported broad confusion about the new Workforce Australia system – including among the employment consultants tasked with running it – with some asked to drive more than 120km to job agency appointments.
Hundreds of respondents to a survey conducted by the Australian Unemployed Workers Union (AUWU) this month listed issues they’d faced during the transition to the $1.5bn-a-year scheme, which replaced Jobactive at the start of the month.
Continue reading...AEC concedes some Covid-positive Australians ‘may not be able to vote’: prime minister responds after Labor announces policy costings; Covid and illness lead to drop in working hours; nation records at least 52 Covid deaths. Follow all the day’s developments live
Scott and Jenny Morrison are visiting Whitemore in the Labor-held electorate of Lyons in Tasmania this morning.
Brian Mitchell holds Lyons on a margin of 5.2%, although his buffer was inflated by the disendorsement of his Liberal opponent mid-campaign in 2019 for anti-Islamic social media posts. Morrison is still on the offence, seeking gains to offset expected losses elsewhere.
Sector faces ‘devastation’ by Brexit red tape and from pandemic
Language schools for foreign students are being “devastated” by a combination of post-Brexit red tape and the impact of the pandemic, threatening the future of a £3.2bn industry, tourism leaders have warned.
A report by the Tourism Alliance said even though the government had ended Covid travel measures, ministers had imposed unnecessary restrictions on children from France, Germany and other EU nations.
Continue reading...Unions say strike over ‘anti-worker’ government policies a success despite limited impact, with far fewer than predicted taking part
An estimated 50 million people joined India’s two-day national strike this week, a fraction of the number expected to protest.
Bank, factory and public transport workers disrupted services in six states on Monday and Tuesday, but the strike had limited impact across the rest of the country.
Continue reading...Treasurer’s office says dip to last years, as Labor points to stagnant wages and vows to lift them
Josh Frydenberg’s pre-election budget will project Australia’s unemployment rate will drop to 3.75% this year, its lowest figure in 50 years, with the Coalition to talk up a “remarkable” post-pandemic recovery.
The treasurer’s fourth federal budget will also fund an extra 15,000 subsidised training courses for aged care workers, in a nearly $50m promise to boost the sector’s workforce.
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