-=> Quoting Rod Speed to Mick Howe <=-

 MH> Obviously the comments of someone who hasn't been
 MH> forced to confront the reality of todays labour market.

 RS> Or maybe the comments of someone who has noticed plenty getting jobs
 RS> TODAY without any real problem. There has got to be a reason why some
 RS> do and some dont Mick. Maybe those who dont should have a close look
 RS> at whats different about those who do and do more of that themselves.

Yeah, simple things like 800 applicants for 24 jobs at KFC in a town with
1800 18 - 25 year olds and 1100 out of work, how can anyone properly review
That many applications, from my own, and friends experiences 15% replies to
requests for written applications and less than 1% notifications of outcome,
How could anyone not be discouraged?

 MH> I hear this every day, especially from retired people in my
 MH> community, the standard response from business people in this
 MH> town to the 40% of the workforce who pound the pathments in
 MH> compliance with the requirements for the dole is a firm 'F**K OFF'.

 RS> Yes, but there are STILL a VAST number of people starting new jobs.
 RS> So if you aint one of those, you should consider why THEY managed to.

 MH> The "world's qreatest treasurers policies made the cost
 MH> of doing business prohibitive, shut down half the local

 RS> He didnt actually, just rather comprehensively stuffed up the
 RS> management of the economy, and quite a few businesses went down the
 RS> tubes. There was also massive over manning in many areas like Telecom
 RS> too. 
He didn't???????
A friend of my was all set to start work just before Christmas, got a phone
call at 10 p.m. telling him the position had to be axed as the employer
couldn't find the $60,000 needed for an unfair dimissal case if he decided
to sack him for any reason, after a visit from the Union Rep.

 MH> What did I get out of this? I lost my job and my house and the
 MH> stress contributed to dumping me on an Invalid Pension scrap heap.

 RS> Or you chose to loll on welfare instead of actually getting off your
 RS> bum and making yourself employable. A HELL of a lot do, its quite
Yeah, I scrounged for food and rent after spending my dole on travelling
around the district, and used up at pile of phone cards phoning about jobs
and calling several employment agencies just for the sake of having some
thing to put on my dole form, they actually used to check the contacts 
you listed at the local office of the CES. The termites did manage to eat
well at least, they ate the kitchen cupboards, then the floor.

 RS> possible that what we are actually seeing with the minimums that the
 RS> unemployment rate gets to thru the economic cycles increasing all the
 RS> time is just more and more finding that welfare provides an acceptible
 RS> standard of living that they are prepared to loll on for decades if we
 RS> are silly enough to let them. -!-
Or it could be that the base rate keeps rising because technology is cutting
out so many jobs with inadequate replacements as was predicted by the 
computer industry in the late 1960's, when I first started learning about
computers, Pity the Luddites of the union movement and Govt burried their
heads in the sand and pretended the problems would never arise because they
didn't like the idea of change. Rational planning at that time could have
led to solutions / workarounds being in place and everybody gaining from
automation. Instead all the unions or government can come up with is to 
turn the country into a nation of waiters and bar staff, regardless of the
lack of need for an extra million waiters, or suitability of many people 
for the jobs.

... /\/\ick
--- Blue Wave/OS2 v2.21