Stream of inquiries underline recession's severity

Media statement January 14th, 2009

Stream of inquiries underline severity of recession

From the second half of 2008 inquiries to the help desks of employer organizations have largely been about restructuring resulting in job losses, reports the Employers and Manufacturers Association (Northern).

Phone calls to the EMA's AdviceLine on job restructuring and redundancies jumped 156 per cent for the quarter ended December 2008* compared to the same period in 2007, said the association's chief executive Alasdair Thompson.

"For the quarter ended 30th September 2008, we fielded 640 calls on restructuring and redundancy, up 80 per cent on the year earlier," Mr Thompson said.

"Then in the following quarter we received a further 809 inquiries on these issues, up 156 per cent.

"But it's important to note that whereas the calls in the second half of 2008 were increasingly about restructuring to weather the recession, the earlier calls were about the re-organisation of jobs to improve business performance.

"The rising stream of inquiries has led to a lot more procedurally and emotionally difficult work for our team of employment relations consultants.

"We hope the government will act rapidly to expedite its planned boost to public sector infrastructure investment and other job saving measures."

ENDS

*The figures relate to the top half of the North Island where EMA Northern operates and which accounts for about half the country's economic activity.

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