Economic Bulletin

The Government’s Budget for 2016 is on 26 May. What’s likely to be in it, and what should be? The ‘Operating Allowance’ for new operational… Read More »What’s Going to Be in The Budget

On 4 April, the workplace health and safety legislation comes into force. It contains many significant steps for the better. But we were very disappointed… Read More »Are Small Businesses Less Safe?

International agencies and many commentators including the Minister of Finance in his “state of the economy” speech last week, have been writing about the growing… Read More »The International Economy: Risks and Opportunities

The Transpacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) will be signed by the trade ministers of 12 countries in Auckland on 4 February. So this is a good… Read More »TPPA: The Economic Case

Unemployment is rising again. It never got below 5.6 percent under this Government despite strong economic growth rates. Just as in the 1990s, it seems… Read More »Unemployment is Still Too High

One of the most significant aspects of the Budget on 21 May will be what has been described as radical changes to funding of public… Read More »The Budget and what it could do to raise wages

Where are New Zealand unions strongest and where are they weakest? While we often focus on the fall in overall union density (the proportion of… Read More »The union landscape

We’re in unusual times. The economy is growing strongly yet deflation (falling prices) is on the cards. There are still serious problems in other developed… Read More »The year ahead: unusual times

The Government is putting poverty on the agenda despite denying that there was a problem during the election campaign. It is difficult to see how… Read More »Doing something about low incomes: wages and benefits

Unions and many others are concerned about the development of “dependent contracting” in New Zealand. It is a form of self-employment in which the worker… Read More »What’s happening to the self-employed?