An interesting comment by Incognito at The Standard on employment and unemployment, work life balance and the move towards more internationally transient labour and the increase in shorter careers for many of is.

Employment and unemployment (both classical and structural) are two sides of the same coin; the one cannot exist without the other. This ‘coin’ [no pun] forms the central pillar of our culture as well as our society. Everything is centred on employment or “work”. Money must be earned (or borrowed) to pay the bills, to afford a roof over your head (whether owning or renting), to pay for schooling, holidays, gadgets, etc. However, a job also provides social status (low or high, regardless) and respect, a place and opportunity for social interactions. In short:laboro ergo sum. Think Maslow’s pyramid symbolising the hierarchy of needs.

We are indoctrinated from a young age that we have to provide (for our family and for our society, through taxes) and become economically-productive law-abiding citizens. To give us all a good/better start on the “career ladder” we are encouraged to send our children to ECE, good/the best (?) schools, and preferably attain a tertiary qualification or two (with a nice grand student debt!). In fact, by law our children must attend a school/schooling for 10 years.

For some it is work to live and for others the motto is more live to work but for both the so-called work-life balance is crucial it seems. It is clear that work and life are pretty much inextricably linked together.

With the globalisation of the workforce and rapid technological changes it has become harder and harder to find secure employment, a meaningful job, or enough hours/pay to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ or just to make ends meet. We used to be able to look forward to a semi-comfortable retirement, the “golden years”, but no more. We now have to work longer and harder to build a “nest egg” and we are not even assured of decent provisions for when the inevitable age-related health issues occur; with a lot of luck we might get to enjoy a few twilight years in reasonable health and then leave this plane for ‘a brighter future’ or the shadowy path of oblivion.

Given all this, and much, much more, it is hard to imagine a society that does not evolve around employment as the major part of people’s lives, as their raison d’être. Surely, there is more to The Human Condition than can be summed up by laboro ergo sum? It is hard to see an alternative that allows maintaining and evolving a complex and (technologically) advanced society with the seemingly inevitable division of labour. But I think we are dire need of an alternative given the issues with (structural) unemployment, poverty, inequality, raping & pillaging of the environment, and many other negative outcomes of the current model.

There’s certainly some important modern challenges raised here – but what is the alternative?

It’s not possible to turn back technology, nor practical to slow down it’s rapid advances.

So we have to learn to deal with many of us not having jobs or careers for life. It would be impossible or at least highly impractical to try and guarantee long term employment.

Some careers are still potentially long term, like healthcare, teaching, law. But even those are changing, in some ways substantially, so retraining is often necessary.

It sounds like Andrew Little may be trying to address some of this in his ‘state of the nation’ speech in late January to kick off Labour’s new political year, and year in which they have to make a positive impression on voters.

Labour have been putting a lot of effort into their ‘Future of Work Commission’ .

Those entering the workforce today are likely to have several different careers and many more different jobs in their lifetimes compared to previous generations. Businesses need new models of organisation, processes and different skills from their workers in an increasingly globalised environment.

At the same time many workers have increasingly insecure and precarious work experiences due to casualisation, zero-hour contracts and other exploitative practices. On the flipside of this, many more people are self-employed by choice, with a younger generation of workers desiring to be their own boss or work in more flexible contracting arrangements.

It is essential that as a country we acknowledge, prepare for and adjust to these changes.  We need to understand the drivers of change, the challenges and opportunities, and what policy programme needs to be adopted so we can face the future with confidence.

Their stated objectives:

Develop policies which tackle the changing nature of work to ensure:

•           Decent jobs

•           Lower unemployment

•           Higher wages

•           Greater security when in work and when out of work

•           High skilled, adaptable and resilient workers

How can a Government ensure ‘decent jobs’?

It’s worth looking at the future of work and employment, and what we can do to adapt to a rapidly changing world.

But what is the alternative to what is happening now?