Employment

Having a job is key to being able to provide for yourself and your family.

In these tough economic times we're working hard to help people stay in work, or get a job if people are not already in work. For those who can't find work, we will be here to help, but our first priority will always be to get people back into the workplace as soon as possible.

Our local labour market
Our regional labour market is driven by the agriculture, dairy, and manufacturing industries. The region also has a strong mining industry, with mining for coal for fuel and for sand and aggregate for roads still in heavy demand.

In this environment we need to think smarter about how we work with employers. We are partnering with industries to fill their vacancies today and to better understand their workforce needs in the future. In the Waikato, small- and medium-sized businesses have been hardest hit by the economic recession. We are working to meet the needs of these businesses as well as those of the larger ones. Training people so they have the skills needed by Waikato's employers is an important step.

Working with employers

Employment and Labour Market Analysis - ELMA
Having the right information at the right time is vital if we are to provide proactive and targeted services for employers and people who have been affected by the recession. We have developed an employment and labour market analysis tool, or ELMA, to help us to better understand our local labour market. We will use ELMA to tailor our services to adapt to the changing environment.

Industry/employer partnerships
We work with industries at a national level to minimise skill and labour shortages, and to maximise job opportunities. These partnerships are designed to address the needs of industries by delivering targeted industry-specific skills training and, at the same time, jobs for programme participants.

We currently have 80 industry and major employer partnerships nationwide. These partnerships include those with major industries like agriculture, construction and hospitality. We also have partnerships with regional Chambers of Commerce and large employers like Telecom, Air New Zealand, Fonterra, Westpac and McDonald's.

In our region we are working with local seasonal, infrastructure, farming and lines maintenance industries to establish more partnerships. These local partnerships help us to deal with local skills shortages and to respond quickly to emerging local employment opportunities. We work with local industry to identify and contract the appropriate training courses. This benefits employers and jobseekers by creating sustainable jobs and new career opportunities.

Straight 2 Work
We run Straight 2 Work programmes with most of our industry and employer partners. These programmes offer pre- and post-employment training and support. They are developed by industry for industry, making the training relevant to the needs of employers.

Jobs with a future
In the Waikato we will encourage employers within the same sector to join up and create a talent resource pool from the local workforce. We will also promote a programme of ongoing upskilling for employees, to prevent future labour and skills shortages.

Help keep businesses going
Businesses with more than 50 staff that are experiencing a temporary downturn can get extra help from us through the Job Support Scheme. The scheme pays an allowance for those workers who agree to work reduced hours. This means employers can keep as many jobs as possible while firms' earnings are down.

Getting people into work

Our 'Work First' focus
We are finding that the type of person coming to us for job search help has changed - they have more skills and a different expectation of our services. This has meant that we have had to respond to better meet their needs.

We have changed our service delivery model to assess how quickly we can get people back into work. We have improved the ease of finding work for self driven jobseekers, improved our services to employers, and ensured that appropriate job vacancies are made more readily available. If a person loses their job, it's important they find another one quickly. They are more likely to be attractive to employers while their skills are current and they still have confidence.

To keep Waikato working we will:

• partner with local industries and employers to help them get the right people with the right skills
• make sure jobseekers have the right information about what employers in our local labour market are looking for, and have the tools to access it.

Help for people affected by redundancy
Despite a business's best efforts to stay afloat, there will be times when it's not enough. When this happens, we will work hard to help those people worst affected by redundancy to find other job opportunities.

In the Waikato we provide a rapid response to people who are being affected by company closures or redundancy. We work with employers and their staff on-site, taking our help to them. We are able to assess the skills and needs of those affected and to move them into other employment as quickly as possible.

For people who have been made redundant, and can't find other work, we deliver the ReStart package. ReStart offers financial help for up to 16 weeks for those people who have been made redundant and need a bit of extra help. It also provides extra accommodation and childcare assistance. So far, we have helped 482 people in our region^[1].

^[1]  As at 14 August 2009.