Northland Booms……It’s great to be at the top of the country and top of the economy
Commenting on the ANZ National's Dec quarter economic survey, Northland Chamber of Commerce CEO, Jeff Smith says that it Northlands time to bloom.
‘We have known for a long time that Northland is a great place to live, work and play. In economic terms the region has enjoyed one of its most sustained growth periods in many years - Business confidence is high, unemployment down, property market buoyant with rising values, crime down, in-creased commercial investment, but seeing the official data has been met with a resounding seal of approval from Northlands Business Community’.
Like other provincial centres in New Zealand Northland had been hit particularly hard in the years following1984 with the deregulation of the economy. In 2005 BERL ranked the three territorial areas within the Northland Region 40th, 44th and 63rd out of the 76 Local Districts within New Zealand in the Regional Performance Indicators index.
Jeff Smith says that the This news tied in with the Quarterly Northland Chamber Confidence survey carried out at the end of December 2006.Business confidence is continuing to rise according to Chamber of Commerce members in the latest Quarterly Poll. For the fifth successive quarter, the level of business optimism has increased in regard to how Northland businesses view both the economy’s overall performance and how they assess their own prospects in the period ahead.
The indicators which are gradually improving were; Business Optimism, Business prospects and a reducing number of people believing that business conditions are deteriorating.
Widely reported claims by economic commentators last year predicting a fall in NZ business optimism through 2006 have turned out to be 100% wrong, as far as businesses in the Northern Regional Chamber of Commerce catchment area.
In fact, the exact opposite trend has occurred as business confidence has steadily improved throughout the year.
In December (2005) nearly 60% of businesses were predicting the business environment to deteriorate in 2006. But in every survey since, the level of pessimism has dropped with just 18% now picking that the business environment will get worse in 2007.
Part of the explanation for the improved optimism and positive statistics in the ANZ Data are
A growing belief that the Government is serious in wanting to encourage business to improve productivity and address basic infrastructure issues such as transport and energy.
Northland Unemployment is way down – therefore more people earning
Although Skills Shortages restrict the growth of the economy the other side to that is full employment starting to push up earnings
Northland Business Confidence is up
The Current flow of incoming net migration in the December quarter was still way above reserve bank forecasts and this is driving Housing and retail spending – The majority of these settle in the 4 main centres but anecdotally Northland is getting more than its fair share in proportion to the population
Commercial Car sales were up in the quarter ending December 2006
commodity prices stay firm
The Challenge is to bring a level of sustainability to the Northland Economy to ensure that Northland continuers to prosper in the following few years said Smith
The Northland Chamber of Commerce is the networking, education, advocacy and marketing group for Northland business, and is part of a nationwide network of 30 and a world-wide movement of 21,000 chambers. Subscription to the free fortnightly chamber e-news can be arranged on info@northchamber.co.nz. Enquiries to 09-4384771 or www.northchamber.co.nz, www.kaiparachamber.co.nz and www.farnorthchamber.co.nz
You can have a say on this by going to the Northland Chamber of Commerce Feedback website on www.northchamber.blogspot.com
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Posts
2 comments:
I suggest that unemployment is not down in Northland, rather that those getting the unemployment benefit may be fewer. There is a significant difference, many people who don't qualify for the dole do want to work. But if they get offered a job the remuneration offered is almost always an insult.
Employers in Whangarei are 30 years behind the times in the salaries offered. Many hourly rates in the admin. sector are barely above the minimum wage, even for highly skilled and experienced people.
It is also a misconception that the cost of living is cheaper in Whangarei, than say, in Auckland. Put simply, it isn't. The weekly supermarket bill is the same - or maybe even higher - in WHG than in Auckland.
Of course there are a number of jobs where people are being paid little more than minimum wage - the minimum wage is far too high! There are many people who are not worth the minimum wage, and are not willing to make the extra effort to earn more. They are freeloaders who rely on the government to get them more pay.
They are capable of working hard, like the rest of us, but CHOOSE not to. I have let someone go this week because of that exact problem. They weren't worth minimum wage before, they sure as hell aren't now!
Unemployment just increased by one long termer.
If a benefit was harder to survive on, then people would les less inclined to rely on them. Instead I have a number of clients who are on benefits making enough money to make poor financial decisions and come in to finance products from our store - products which are not a NEED, but a desirable product which not everyone feels they can afford. You certainly shouldn't have $120 per week left over to buy "toys".
Instead of socially engineering society to make thess people feel good about themselves, why not educate the general population to understand that they choose their future, and the effort they put in is the greatest influence on where they are in 10 years.
I am proud of what I have acheived, it may not be much, but I have come a long way.
These people need to understand that they aren't owed everything.
If you want more money, make yourself indespensible, make yourself worth more than you are now. If you then aren't able to get more pay, move on to somewhere that you can - don't expect more pay before you've made yourself worth. That is most peoples first mistake. If you already get the pay, you naturally have no incentive to make your self worth more.
If the pay is so poor, why do people take the jobs? If a role can't be filled, it is THEN safe to say that the financial reward isn't high enough to atract someone to fill the role, overcoming the negative aspects of the role. The fact is, people do take the jobs, the pay is enough to make them take them. Why would someone offer more?
The cost of living in Auckland is higher than Whangarei. Think about parking (I have spent over $50 in a day in Auckland on occasion!), car insurance (higher in Auckland due to higher risk of accident and theft - phone an insurance company), Local Body land rates, transport costs (more time in traffic means less fuel economy due to idling), rent is higher (average of $150 per room in an "average" area), General grocery price is very similar - local produce has less transport costs in rural ares, as it isn't trucked as far. Aucklands large population base is expanding at a very high rate, causing a shortage of supply in many ares - try phone tradesmen to get them out in Auckland! A shortage of supply means prices can increase - simple economics!
Very little of the extra cost of living if from groceries!
Post a Comment