The latest Stats NZ data, released this week, said the Pacific employment rate for the September 2024 quarter was at 60.8 percent, down from 63.3 per cent for the same time last year.

For the population of Aotearoa as a whole, the seasonally adjusted employment rate in the September 2024 quarter was 67.8 percent, downslightly from 68.4 percent last quarter, and 69.3 percent in the September 2023 quarter. Read more

The idea can even seem to come right from the mouths of experts, including the bank's governor, Adrian Orr.

Speaking recently to an industry conference, he said: "Returning to low inflation will, in the near term, constrain employment growth and lead to a rise in unemployment."

Similar sentiments have been expressed by independent economists and commentators.

But is it as simple as it might appear? What is the relationship between inflation and unemployment, and is it inevitable that reducing one will lead to an increase in the other?

Historic highs and lows

Like other developed countries, New Zealand has been going through a period of historically high inflation. The latest figures for the September quarter of 2022, show an annual rise of 7.2 per cent, only slightly lower than the 7.3 per cent recorded for the June quarter.

Inflation is the highest it has been since 1990. The story is similar across the OECD, where inflation averages 10.3 per cent, including 8.8 per cent in the UK and 8.2 per cent in the US.

At the same time, New Zealand is experiencing a period of very low unemployment, with a rate of just 3.3 per cent for September 2022, following 3.2 per cent in the June quarter. These are near-record lows, and the rate has not been below 4 per cent since mid-2008.

So, right now New Zealand is in a period of historically low unemployment and historically high inflation. At first glance, that might suggest that in order to return to low inflation, we may inevitably experience higher unemployment.

The Phillips Curve

The idea that inflation and unemployment have a negative relationship (when one increases, the other decreases, and vice versa) dates back to work by New Zealand's most celebrated economist, A.W. (Bill) Phillips.

While working at the London School of Economics in the 1950s, Phillips wrote a famous paper that used UK data from 1861 to 1957 and showed a negative relationship between unemployment and wage increases.

Subsequent work by economics Nobel Prize winners Paul Samuelson and Robert Solow extended Phillips' work to show a negative relationship between price inflation and unemployment. We now refer to this relationship as the "Phillips Curve".

However, even though this relationship between inflation and unemployment has been demonstrated with various data sources and for various time periods for different countries, it is not a causal relationship.

Lower inflation doesn't by itself cause higher unemployment, even though they are related. To see why, it's worth thinking about the mechanism that leads to the observed relationship.

Collateral damage

If the Reserve Bank raises the official cash rate, commercial banks follow by raising their interest rates. That makes borrowing more expensive. Higher interest rates mean banks will lend less money. With less money chasing goods and services in the economy, inflation will start to fall.

Of course, this is what the Reserve Bank wants when it raises the cash rate. Its Policy Targets Agreement with the government states that inflation must be kept between 1 per cent and 3 per cent. So when inflation is predicted to be higher, the bank acts to lower it.

At the same time, higher interest rates increase mortgage payments, leaving households and consumers with less discretionary income, and so consumer spending falls. Along with reduced business spending, this reduces the amount of economic activity. Businesses, therefore, need fewer workers, and so employment falls.

So, while the Reserve Bank raises interest rates to combat inflation, those higher interest rates also slow down the economy and increase unemployment. Higher unemployment is essentially collateral damage arising from reducing inflation.

Great expectations

That's not the end of the story, though. After its 1960s heyday, the Phillips Curve was criticised by economists on theoretical grounds and for its inability to explain the "stagflation" (high unemployment and high inflation) experienced in the 1970s.

For example, Milton Friedman argued there is no trade-off between inflation and unemployment because workers and businesses take inflation into account when negotiating employment contracts.

Workers' and employers' expectations about future inflation are key.

Friedman argued that because inflation is expected, workers will have already built it into their wage demands, and businesses won't change the number of workers they employ.

Friedman's argument would suggest that, aside from some short-term deviations, the economy will typically snap back to a "natural" rate of unemployment, with an inflation rate that only reflects workers' and businesses' expectations.

Symptom or cause?

Can we rely on this mechanism to avoid higher unemployment as the Reserve Bank increases interest rates to combat inflation?

It seems unlikely. Workers would first have to expect the Reserve Bank's actions will lower inflation and respond by asking for smaller wage increases. Right now, however, consumer inflation expectations remain high, and wage growth is at record levels.

So, we can probably expect unemployment to move upwards as the Reserve Bank's inflation battle continues. Not because lower inflation causes higher unemployment but because worker and consumer expectations take time to reflect the likelihood of lower future inflation due to the Reserve Bank's actions.

And since workers negotiate only infrequently with employers, there is an inevitable lag between inflation expectations changing and this being reflected in wages. Alas, for ordinary households, there is no quick and easy way out of this situation.

• Michael P. Cameron, Associate Professor in Economics, University of Waikato
• First published in The Conversation. Republished with permission.

Jody Hamilton (pictured, left) who founded LIFT Youth Employment says the new initiative aims to connect with and help young people who want to work in retail or have entrepreneurial goals.

LIFT's vision is for 100 percent youth employment for the Hawke's Bay region.

Its target group is young people (16-24 years) and its goal is to help them into sustainable and fulfilling employment and self-employment.

One in five young people in Hawke's Bay are neither in education, employment or training - the highest rate in the country.

LIFT's new social enterprise will include a retail outlet, due to open on 3 August.

The shop will organised and managed entirely by unemployed youth, Hamilton says.

"The store in Napier CBD will allow young people to gain experience in a retail operation, which they can't always get elsewhere, and give them an outlet to sell products they're developing," she says.

"We work with rangatahi to develop their business skills, knowledge and confidence through a proven business development approach.

"We've hired five unemployed young people to work as staff, who all have business ideas which we will work on with them."

Locally designed woven flax goods, t-shirts, tea towels and more will make up the stores core products.

Shop coordinator Moana Hamilton-Neville will oversee the day to day proceedings of the new initiative.

Hamilton-Neville, 23, who previously trained as a facilitator on LIFT's life skills course 'Bounce', is looking forward to the prospect of helping others like herself.

"I feel really lucky and excited to be able to work alongside creative and talented rangatahi in this region, as they achieve their dreams," she says.

In addition to the shop, the LIFT Business - Creating Jobs, Creating Futures - will provide a hub for rangatahi to produce goods and develop technical skills. It will also include a training room to help with business development programmes.

The space will also feature activities available throughout the week, including waiata on Wednesdays, open performances on Thursdays and a fitness and wellbeing session on Fridays.

In the past two-and-a-half years, LIFT has worked with almost six hundred young people.

Source

• RNZ
• NZ Herald
• Image: RNZ

The Salvation Army says although the application period for CIRP ended last week, only one in ten people who have finished their CIRP are in work.

Some people have been able to transition onto the Jobseeker benefit.

A further 20,000 or so will not be eligible for Government support as the payments run out.

Besides the CIRP group, 37,000 people lost their jobs in the three months to September.

This is the biggest quarterly increase since 1986. The number of New Zealanders unemployed is now at about 151,000.

Thousands of people may be looking for paid work as Christmas approaches.

Salvation Army director of community ministries, Jono Bell, is expecting a 20 per cent increase in demand for support with Christmas food and gifts this year.

"Increasingly, our clients are severely stressed and anxious about how to get through the festive season, and, beyond that, what the future holds," he says.

Bell notes that 92 percent of the clients using the Salvation Army's financial mentoring service have incomes of less than $50,000 a year. Twenty-two percent earn less than $20,000 a year.

"The pressure on our clients and their whanau to make ends meet is enormous, and COVID-19 has added more uncertainty," he says.

Source

• Scoop
• SunLive
• Image: Wairarapa Times Age

The housing market and many domestic-orientated industries are doing well. And for many households and businesses, the economic downturn has so far had little impact on job security, incomes, or spending.

For some, the increased prevalence of flexible and remote working has even brought a welcome breath of fresh air.

But some pockets of the economy have been hit relatively hard. Those industries exposed to tourism have seen unprecedented challenges, despite a cushion from the captive domestic tourism market through winter and the wage subsidy.

The international education industry is facing a massive hole, and industries like horticulture reliant on overseas labour are facing significant problems.

The impact on the labour market has been uneven too, with 31,000 fewer people in employment compared with March - and a massive blow has been seen in retail, accommodation and food services in particular (where there are now 29,000 fewer people employed than in March.

Women more affected

But the uneven impact hasn't just been by industry. Job losses are unfortunately rising, and so far the impact of that has been felt disproportionately by women.

Since March, women have experienced 71 per cent of the decline in employment (with 22,000 fewer women employed). Some of this may be voluntary, with 4000 fewer women in the labour force, who are no longer ready, willing, or able to work.

For these women, retirement, working in the home or other unpaid work may be a preferred option. But others may not be participating because they are discouraged about their job prospects.

This possibility is concerning, particularly if it becomes entrenched and productive workers, income potential and valuable skills are lost.

The "voluntary" dynamic is only a modest part of the story at best.

The fact is we know that there are now many more women who are not in work but would like to be.

The number of women who meet the definition of "unemployed" - ready, willing and able to work - has increased by 19,000 since March. This has seen the female unemployment rate rise from 4.4 per cent to 5.8 per cent (compared with an increase from 4.1 per cent to 4.8 per cent for men).

In addition to the extra 19,000 women who are now unemployed relative to March, there are also more women in employment who would like to work more hours but can't (23,000 women). Taking this into account, the female underutilisation rate is sitting at 16.2 per cent, compared with 10.6 per cent for men.

Women tend to work in lower-paid jobs on average, with average hourly earnings about 10 per cent lower than those for men (not adjusting for job type and the like).

That means that the income effects of this crisis have been uneven too. In aggregate, incomes have been cushioned by things like the wage subsidy and the blow has been nowhere near as bad as it could have been.

But some people are nonetheless much worse off than they were before, and so far the impact appears to be skewed towards those with lower-paid jobs.

Why have women seen such an impact? There appear to be two parts to the story. Continue reading

Quarantined in a one-bedroom apartment in New York, I would sometimes imagine my fire escape was a creaky porch in the woods somewhere as I sat outside in the early evenings, listening to my neighbours' cheer and bang pots for the essential workers carrying the city on their backs.

Life felt stuck: no way to plan, nowhere to go, nothing to build toward.

The calendar had been emptied of weddings and dinners and reunions; the comforting rhythms of weeks and seasons disappeared.

I found myself alternately plotting wild adventures and pining for a quiet, communal life.

A professor of mine used to call this kind of musing "Jesuit daydreaming," his description of the rich Ignatian tradition of spiritual discernment.

I should pay attention to daydreams, he said, because they can be more revealing than I might first assume.

In this case, I think he is right: My pandemic mind loop was tracing the problem I have come to see as one of the great dilemmas of modern life.

In my work as a religion journalist, I often offer a mental image to explain the importance of the beat to secular colleagues and readers.

While not everyone describes themselves as having faith or even feeling spiritual, everyone has those searching moments in the middle of the night, covers pulled up high as they are lying in bed wondering how to have a good life.

More often than not, people's descriptions of what a good life looks like depends on a single factor: the strength of the community around them.

As a reporter, it is my job to follow along as individuals and communities try to figure out who they want to be and how they want to live.

It is hard to be a man or woman for others in a culture that is dominated by us versus them.

Over the past eight months, however, the path toward a good life has become obscured for many Americans.

As I sat inside my apartment daydreaming about the future, dozens of people

• on my street were getting sick,
• were losing family members or navigating the anxiety of being immunocompromised during a public-health crisis,
• were among many Americans, especially in New York, have spent their last eight months mostly alone, and mostly at home, sometimes unable even to wave hello to loved ones from a distance.
• contributed to the unemployment rate in New York City, which this summer reached 20 percent; many beloved businesses will likely never come back after the shutdown.
• are impacted by the basic ingredients of a good life—decent health, the warmth of family and friends, economic stability—are now out of reach for far more people in our country than at the start of 2020.

But the pandemic has also revealed the extent to which a good life felt elusive for countless Americans far before any of us had heard of Covid-19.

This is not just a matter of money or resources.

In my reporting, I constantly find evidence that Americans feel isolated and unmoored from their communities, unsure of their place in the world.

I am thinking of a Black Southern Baptist-trained pastor who could not stomach taking his kids to church within his denomination anymore because of his fellow church members' reluctance to talk about racism.

A longtime staffer at a major American archdiocese who feels daily rage at the Catholic Church's inability to address the clergy sexual-abuse crisis.

A young woman fired from her job at a conservative Christian advocacy organization because she spoke out against President Trump. A Catholic professor who bitterly wishes the Democratic Party had room for his pro-life views.

These are all examples from the world of religion and politics, but they speak to a deep and expansive truth: In many parts of American life, people feel the institutions that were supposed to guide their lives have failed, and that there is no space for people like them.

The result is a widespread sense of mutual mistrust.

Last year, the Pew Research Center found that fewer than one in five Americans say they can trust the government.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans have a hard time telling the truth from lies when elected officials speak, and even more believe the government unnecessarily withholds important information from the public.

I have encountered plenty of mistrust in the course of reporting stories.

People believe they know my politics, suspect me of bias and assume I will be hostile to religion because of where I work.

Religious leaders may be the most distrusted group of all.

As one influential Catholic businessman in Boston told me a couple of years ago, following the sexual-abuse scandal, "I go to Mass about three or four days a week.

I'm not into Vatican politics. I'm not into Vatican museums. I'm not into people who wear red slippers and fancy robes.

I bought into this as a kid, because of the life of Christ. So I'm in. But I'm not drinking any Kool-Aid."

Nearly two-thirds of Americans have a hard time telling truth from lies when elected officials speak. Continue reading

For youth aged 15-24 years (General Social Survey) or aged 18-24 years (other surveys), the incidence of prolonged loneliness increased from 5.8% of youth before lockdown to about 20.8% during the lockdown.

It fell slightly to 17.0% post-lockdown.

These are the findings of the Loneliness New Zealand Charitable Trust's report written by Dr Spencer Scoular.

Put another way, before lockdown 1 in 17 youth experienced prolonged loneliness, whereas during lockdown this increased to 1 in 5 youth and post-lockdown 1 in 6 youth.

Solo parents and the unemployed are among other groups most affected by loneliness brought on by Covid-19.

Overall prolonged loneliness increased from 3.5 percent of the New Zealand adult population before lockdown to about 10.6 percent during the lockdown, before slightly falling to 8.7 percent post-lockdown.

While the country grappled with higher unemployment, lower incomes, border restrictions, and working from home, meaningful connections would have been even harder to develop and sustain, Socular said.

This would increase people's risk of prolonged loneliness and poor wellbeing.

Youth Unemployment
Young people have been hit hardest by job losses in that time, with the number of people aged 18 to 24 on Jobseeker Support increasing by 66 per cent, a Salvation Army report found.

Maori and Pasifika workers have been generally more affected by job losses, with more than half of those households left in financial difficulty during the lockdown period.

The Salvation Army has called for "coherent and fair welfare support" based on "real measures on income adequacy" after saying the COVID-19 Income Relief Payment had highlighted "inadequate benefit levels."

The Salvation Army is calling for coherent and fair welfare support that is based on real measures of income adequacy and a focus on keeping people and especially children out of poverty.

• Source
  stuff.co.nz
• loneliness.org.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• salvationarmy.org.nz
• Image: loneliness.org.nz

The call comes in response to the Government's Income Relief Payment making full-time workers who lost their job because of the economic impact of COVID-19 eligible for tax-free weekly payments of almost $500 a week for a period of 12 weeks.

CPAG criticises the policy saying the divisive move comes at a time when the country is united in stopping the spread of COVID-19.

CPAG says the recovery is a team effort, one "not marked by unfair distinctions that only deem some to be deserving of help."

It is calling the move towards the needy as "punitive."

Susan St John, CPAG's economic spokesperson, says this new policy makes it light years better than the Jobseeker benefit for which many do not currently qualify because they have an earning partner.

"Modern relationships are complex and the current rules regarding benefits are based on archaic notions of the relationship and assumes what is expected from partners. But these assumptions are based on old ideas that do not apply today, if they ever did, and which have forced many into unacceptable poverty."

The Maori Party co-leader, Te Tai Hauauru, agrees and is similarly asking the Labour-led government to lift the incomes of all needy, not just those out of work from COVID-19.

Saying the Party is happy that those who recently lost their job will be guaranteed a liveable income for 12 weeks, but points out they are no more deserving than anyone else who is out of work.

"Our economy has been structured in such a way that many Maori were already locked out of employment before the pandemic - Maori unemployment has consistently been double the rate of Pakeha unemployment", the Maori Party says in a statement.

They say there is no justification for the recently redundant to receive double the income support of those made redundant before the pandemic.

"We are entering what is likely to be a major recession - all people needed guaranteed secure incomes, and not just for 12 weeks."

"It's likely many recently unemployed people won't be able to find new work within 12 weeks," the Party says.

Welcoming the income relief payments Auckland Action Against Poverty (AAAP) say that all unemployed deserve liveable incomes.

AAAP says the government's move is a slap in the face of hundreds of thousands of people on a benefit who rely on food grants to survive and is accusing the government of creating a two-tier welfare system.

"People who have been in work have suffered a very sharp income drop, and that obviously that's very unexpected because of Covid-19 ... It's a recognition that we need to cushion the blow for people," Finance Minister Grant Robertson said.

Sources

• Stuff
• Newshub
• NZ Doctor
• The Maori Party

Bernie Smith, chief executive of Monte Cecilia Housing Trust, says the Government had spent massive amounts on getting people into emergency housing or motels before the Covid-19 crisis. Read more

Helping these people is not a form of socialism, it's Church teaching.

Zampini says the Church's advocacy for the poor has resulted in some people accusing it of being socialists.

"Our answer is": ‘So, some companies are asking for help, and that's not socialism, but if poor people or informal workers need help, that's socialism?'

"This is not about ideology. This is not about socialism or capitalism."

"All the structures of society are being challenged at the moment. What we are trying to implement is the preferential option for the poor. That's one of the basic principles, and it is an ethical imperative according to Laudato Si," Zampini says.

Zampini, who is an adjunct secretary in the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, says while all proposals have complications, including providing a universal basic income, "we need to do something."

"We cannot remain indifferent, and these people cannot be invisible for society."

He pointed out that at present "millions of people" are losing their jobs.

While some people's needs are covered by the market and others receive unemployment insurance from the state, "what happens to those millions of people who aren't covered by either the market or the state?"

They are being forced by the pandemic to stay at home.

Zampini says one person told him that if he stayed home without working, his family risked dying of hunger, but going out meant he could also be infected or that he could infect someone else.

"We cannot force them to stay at home…without any support," Zampini says.

He echoes Pope Francis's call for a universal basic income.

"It has its pros and cons, but if you weigh these pros and cons today, there's no doubt we should do something, at least if we want to promote health for everyone.

"We need to sustain those who are doing something for society such as staying home."

The Vatican's coronavirus taskforce is charged with handling the challenges resulting from the pandemic.

Led by Cardinal Peter Turkson of the Vatican's development department, five working groups are looking at different aspects of the pandemic fallout, including unemployment and research.

Tying the Church's response to the pandemic fallout to the papal encyclical, Laudato Si', Turkson says "We listen to the cry of creation and the cry of the poor."

Zampini also points out that the world is facing a severe food shortage, which could cause violent conflicts to arise due to insecurity, creating an even larger class of those living in poverty.

"The value of society is determined by how it treats its most vulnerable members," he says.

Helping poor and jobless people affected by COVID-19 is, "an opportunity to change, both in production and consumption patterns and in private and public actions."

Source

• Crux
• Image:SBS

"In these days, many people have lost their jobs, were not rehired or work off the books. Let us pray for these brothers and sisters of ours who are suffering from this lack of work," the pope said May 11 at the start of his Mass in the Domus Sanctae Marthae.

The pope's prayer came at a time when jobless rates have skyrocketed as businesses were forced to close their doors due to lockdown measures. According to a Washington Post report May 11, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said the U.S. unemployment rate "is likely to rise to 20 percent" in June. Read more

21-year old Fereti Maiava wants to plan his future and that of his young family properly.

He told Village Voice that family and church obligations are a big problem.

"When it comes to family faalavelave, church and villages donation it cost us lots of money. But it's a must to do it."

Fereti does not have a job.

"I am looking for a job but in the meantime we have a plantation to earn our food and money."

"Hopefully one day I'll get a job so that I can give my family the best life."

40-years-old Samuelu Soso has a job as a security officer but he told Village Voice with the minimum wages, people are struggling.

"People with minimum wages like us can only pay for food and other small things but for fa'alavelave and huge contributions this is when we consider doing loans."

56-year-old Sefo Pesamino's worst fear is not being able to help his family - especially his children.

When village Voice visited him he was hard at work in the plantation. He told Village Voice "I do this for my family and my children," he said.

Sefo has been a farmer since a young age.

"I have worked at planting taro, banana and more for a long time," he said.

"This is where my children are provided for financially until they are old enough to have their own families."

Sefo says life is a struggle but people have just got to learn to manage.

"The problem is when I don't have money sometimes," he said. "When that happens, I feel like I've neglected my family."

"There are times when I get angry at myself for not having a job to provide but I accept that this is who I am and what I do best."

Source

• samoaobserver.ws
• sobserver.ws
• sobserver.ws
• Image: oxfam.org.nz

It says as a country we need to have a rational and open debate around the role of immigration in New Zealand's future.

In a report, What Next, released this week;the Salvation Army suggests Government and some industries see immigration as an easy-fix to skill shortages, rather than tipping the balance in favour of upskilling young New Zealanders.

Prime Minister John Key has rejected criticism.

He told Parliament the growing economy had cut the number of 15 to 19-year-olds not in employment, education or training (NEETs).

"The NEET rate for 15 to 19-year-olds is almost the lowest since records began in 2004."

"A huge number of young New Zealanders are in apprenticeships the economy is creating a huge number of jobs and opportunities"

"I think migration of people to New Zealand is a positive and good thing," Key said.

Report author is Alan Johnson, senior policy analyst with The Salvation Army's Social Policy and Parliamentary Unit.

He says, "Continuing to import labour as an easy, short-term solution avoids the broader society-wide issues of what to do about the skills deficit of hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders and of catering for the needs of migrants."

The report suggests local industries should be required to plan for the inclusion of more young New Zealanders into their sector.

They should be required to demonstrate a tangible commitment to this before a relaxation of migration policies is considered to meet labour needs.

Source

• What Next
• pacificscoop.co.nz
• radionz.co.nz
• Image: salvationarmy.org.nz

A University of Waikato Islamic studies review on patterns and disparity of New Zealand Muslims found Muslims to be more educated and qualified than Christians.

However, Muslims are three times more likely to be without a job than Christians or people not affiliated to any religion. Continue reading

Waikato University demographer Dr Tahu Kukutai says that New Zealand is still wasting its "demographic dividend" of young Maori and Pacific people reaching working age, as investments in health and education fail to flow through into highly paid jobs.

Dr Kukutai's data shows that Maori and Pacific incomes still show no trend towards catching up with higher-paid Europeans, and that Maori and Pacific people have lost relatively more jobs in the recent recession.

The youthful Maori and Pacific populations make up almost 27 per cent of New Zealanders aged 18 to 24, compared with only 17 per cent of the older working age group aged 25 to 64 - giving New Zealand a demographic "dividend" that other developed countries with rapidly ageing populations don't have.

But 22.7 per cent of young Maori and 20.1 per cent of Pacific people aged 15 to 24 were not in employment, education or training (Neet) last year, compared with only 9.9 per cent of young Europeans and 5.7 per cent of young Asians.

Many others have gone to Australia. Despite offsetting immigration, last year's Census revealed that New Zealand's total population aged 25 to 39 dropped by 5 per cent between 2001 and 2013. The Maori population in that prime working age group dropped by 9 per cent.

"There is a lot of unrealised potential, a lot of waste," Dr Kukutai says.

"The focus on closing the gaps tends to juxtapose groups in opposition to each other, but really what New Zealand has failed to grasp is that what's good for Maori is good for the country and that it's actually in the national interest that all those gaps that continue are remedied."

Source:

• New Zealand Herald
• Image: New Zealand Herald

Research and advocacy co-ordinator Lisa Beech said what the legislation was attempting to do had parallels with the poor houses of Britain in the 19th century.

Beech said Caritas had no confidence that its views would be heard.

"In 25 years of making submissions, I have never felt more disillusioned and discouraged about participating in the select committee process."

"The role of the select committee is not simply to rubber-stamp the decisions of the Cabinet ... or to provide some kind of legal proof-reading of minor details."

Statistics New Zealand's latest household labour force numbers, published earlier this month show people out of work rose to 7.3% in the September quarter.

Labour leader David Shearer and other opposition MPs, say prime minister John Key's legacy is leaving the highest jobless rate since Jenny Shipley's National government in the late 1990s.

Source

• Radio New Zealand
• NBR
• Image: The Daily Post

"As long as we continue to have people who are doing nothing in Honiara, this is where all this criminal activity is beginning to develop; stealing, shoplifting, even snatching people's bags as they walk past, all these things. And even worse, even wounding and killing," he said.

He says the church is doing as much as it can. "But there are members of the community, who escape the net of the church, and this is where I believe the government, the law of the country needs to be firm, needs to be articulate to address such issues."

A reconciliation that toook place on Monday ceremony is believed to have eased tensions caused by acts of violence in Honiara over the last 10 days

During the ceremony, compensation was paid to the families and victims of the violence.

Source

• Radio Australia Network News - Bishop's statement
• Radio Australia Network News - Reconcilation

According to the latest report of the ILO (International Labour Organization) the generation of 20-30-year-olds is marked by a dangerous combination of high unemployment, growing inactivity and precariousness making it difficult to plan an acceptable future and make long- term plans. This situation, "brings not only current discomfort from unemployment, under-employment and the stress of social hazards associated with joblessness and prolonged inactivity, but also possible longer term consequences in terms of lower future wages and distrust of the political and economic system." It is becoming impossible for a young person to find anything more than part-time or underpaid work and this phenomenon - perhaps for the first time in history - has a planetary dimension: in the last twenty years in the Middle East and North Africa, nearly one youth in four has been unemployed, despite progress made in education.

Full Article: L'Osservatore Romano

Image: Pluto Press

The pope spoke out as he welcomed Britain's new ambassador to the Vatican, Nigel Baker, on what was his 43rd birthday.

Mr Baker presented his letters of credential to the Pontiff in a colourful ceremony at his summer lakeside residence.