The unemployable a growing problem

Allied Work Force warns the unemployable a growing problem

The New Zealand economy faces a potential threat from the growing number of unemployable workers says one of the nation’s biggest employers.

Mike Huddleston, chief executive of Allied Work Force (AWF), says the slight decline in the unemployment figures from 6.9% to 6.4% released today, masks an underlying problem.

“The quality of the temporary labour pool has improved significantly in the past three years and subsequently the bar has been raised for potential employees,” Mr Huddleston says. “In many cases workers must pass a pre-employment drug test, have a clean criminal history and need to be able to get themselves to work. This presents a threshold that many cannot reach and there is significant danger the number of unemployable workers will increase as a result.”

Mr Huddleston says as companies grow out of the recession they are being conservative in appointing permanent staff. More and more potential employers are using temporary labour providers to do their recruitment for them. AWF employs thousands of workers on its books each day and then deploys them to clients.

“Many employers are not hiring new permanent staff until they witness greater business certainty and are utilising flexible labour, especially for seasonal or production peaks,” he says.

“At the same time they have discovered they are able to access a much better quality of temporary staff than in the past,” Mr Huddleston says. “They now expect reliability and trustworthiness, commitment to work and high health and safety consciousness, which translates to compliance with drugs and alcohol laws.”

Mr Huddleston has a warning too for 16 -24-year-olds, saying they need to look carefully how they position themselves for the workforce. While there are many job opportunities for those who want to work and who present themselves fit, capable and committed to work, some will need temporary work experience first.

“Most often this will result in permanent placement for those who are committed,” he says. “But it provides young workers with valuable work experience, a chance to develop work disciplines and to understand how they fit in the work environment.”

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