This collection of stories from 2024 features some of the Listener’s best journalism on the world of work - and the financial decisions that many of us have to confront when nearing retirement. Feature image: Anthony Ellison
Future leaders or entitled whingers? Why younger workers want change
Working from home has triggered a generational challenge to concepts such as the five-day week and loyalty to the cause.
As an employee cohort, Gen Z is perceived to have a list of wants: the flexibility to work remotely, more time off, better perks and higher pay. The generation before them – the millennials or Gen Y, digital natives hatched from the early-80s to mid-90s – are considered ambitious: a 2011 PwC survey found millennial workers’ top priority was career progression. Now, research points to workers coming through wanting two key things: pay and work-life balance.
A global study of Gen Z and millennials by Deloitte last year found they had specific priorities in the workplace: higher pay (half lived from payday to payday), work-life balance (they would leave an organisation rather than sacrifice that), 80% looked for mental health support and policies when considering a job, and half wanted their employers to have more policies around social responsibility and sustainability. The overriding message from the 22,000 young employees polled in 44 countries was that they would choose a job and a lifestyle based on their values.
They may be ready to flex their values, but is the workplace ready for them?
Jobs for life: How to prepare for a career that doesn’t yet exist
The gap between education and work has never been wider so it’s important that educators, graduates and employers change their mindsets.
We’re predicting and trying to prepare people for careers that don’t exist while many of those that do currently exist will soon be done by machines. A statistic regularly quoted by official sources, including the World Economic Forum, notes that 65% of kids currently in primary school will do a job that is yet to be invented.
The forum’s 2023 Future of Jobs report, meanwhile, claims that 42% of business tasks will be automated by 2027. Spare a thought, then, for people entering the workforce or thinking of a career change.
Why economies fail: Stark lessons for NZ from a 2024 Nobel Prize winner
Noble laureate Daron Acemoglu’s theories on why economies fail should make New Zealanders very nervous, writes Danyl McLauchlan.
Why Nations Fail uses the last 500 years of global history as a set of natural experiments to study how institutions generate wealth and prosperity. Why do people in Nogales, Arizona, earn three times more than people immediately across the border in Nogales, Mexico? They have the same geographic location, resources, climate and ethnic populations. Why is South Korea richer than North Korea? Why is Zimbabwe so much poorer than Botswana?
Their answer is that successful, prosperous states have a combination of inclusive institutions: property rights, the rule of law, political pluralism and open markets. No single faction or group dominates the political or legal system: there’s broad equality, economic participation, opportunity for innovation and upwards mobility. People will build new things, invent new products, create new jobs and generate an abundance of wealth. You could have a big old social democracy or a minimal neoliberal state: so long as your political institutions are inclusive and responsive, you’ll probably be okay.
What kills your economy is elite capture...
People are living longer, but as the cost of living skyrockets, retirees are finding their pension can’t house or feed them. Are reverse mortgages the answer?
The stunning rise in New Zealand property prices over the past two decades – only slightly mitigated by the recent correction – would seem to make the case for reverse mortgages stronger than ever.
So, if a reverse mortgage is a solution for a homeowner with limited cash, why aren’t they more popular with lenders and superannuitants? The answers would seem to be societal. Experts says banks don’t want to be seen to be exploiting the elderly – reverse mortgages do come with higher-than-average interest rates, and the longer the mortgage is used, the greater the equity erosion in the value of the house.
Will our world-leading superannuation fund pay for your retirement?
Our superannuation fund is world-leading but must continue to beat the odds if today’s young workers are to enjoy a meaningful state pension.
According to some critics, the New Zealand Super Fund is not a victim of its own success, but the country is. In their view, the fund’s success makes it seem bigger than it is, giving us a false sense of security. It provides a fig leaf for politicians who don’t do forward planning – a fig leaf so threadbare that the bits can still be seen. That’s because the fund – effective though it is – will still meet only 18% of the cost of pensions at their peak, according to the latest NZSF annual report. That will leave 82% charged to the taxpayer.
Budget food and a cold rental: The retirement reality for many women in NZ
Women are much less likely than men to have a mortgage-free home by the time they retire, and the number is rising sharply.
This is the face of female poverty in retirement: cheap food, rationed, in a cold rental house. The Massey University retirement income calculations talk of “no frills” options, and for many women “no frills” would be better described as “threadbare”. When women reach 65, they’re likely to be well behind men in liquid and fixed assets, a gap that widens as the years go by.
Aged care crisis: Too few beds, rising costs and a failing health system
Rest home-level care is increasingly unaffordable for ageing NZers, yet with the numbers in need set to soar, the sums don’t add up for providing more beds, plus the means test minefield.
Baby Boomers now retired but still living in their own home, Gen Xers still working but nearing retirement, and Millennials and Gen Zers who will likely face the costs of caring for their infirm parents while dealing with their own financial futures. An ever-growing proportion of the population will need some form of residential care in the future – but the current model of caring for the frail elderly in this country is accepted as broken.
Devastating choices for pet owners as soaring costs & veterinarian shortages bite
A vet shortage in the midst of a boom in pet ownership leaves many carers making hard choices as the cost-of-living crisis bites.
As pet owners weather the cost-of-living crisis, veterinarians are warning it’s heaping more pressure on a profession already under immense stress. High vet bills are just one of the problems. Practitioners report a serious shortage of veterinarians, particularly experienced vets in rural areas, made worse by Covid-related border closures that led to plummeting rates of new registrations. A New Zealand Veterinary Association (NZVA) survey of members a year ago showed the sector had 150 unfilled vacancies.
“I really do think we’re in a perfect storm,” says Professor Jenny Weston, dean of veterinary education at Massey University. “We already had a shortage of vets, and then Covid’s border closures exacerbated that. Also, a huge number of people got a puppy during Covid so there’s been a massive increase in pet ownership and now a lot of these dogs have behavioural issues because they’re not used to being left alone. I’m hearing the economic crisis on top of that means so many more are finding they can’t afford treatment for their pet, or even possibly to feed them.”