Work and Unemployment in Post-Industrial Times

In New Zealand, rises and falls in the rate of unemployment over the past twenty years have inevitably produced statements of hope for a return to full employment. lt is suggested that the continued simple optimism about full employment has obscured alternative explanations for especially long term unemployment and delayed genuine attempts to make adequate provision for it: provisions that relate to the nature of modern work and give more meaning to the lives of unemployed people. The paper will develop an alternative explanation of unemployment based on an analysis of worldwide changes in the nature of work and show how it applies in New Zealand. The explanation leads to different ways of thinking about unemployment and the wide range of experiences within the unemployed conditions and expands the possibilities for suitable policies. A crucial central ingredient for unemployment policy in post-industrial times is an effective national system of life-long learning. The paper finds that provisions for lifelong learning in New Zealand still favour the well-endowed and the well-heeled and are seriously deficient for those whom unemployment hits hardest, creating damaging ripple effects in other aspects of social life. With adequate provisions it is suggested that unemployment can be regarded as a transition in the life course when new kinds of work and new ways of contributing to the community can be explored.