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During the late 20th and early part of this 21st century, it became relatively common place for New Zealand public service chief executive (CE) roles to be filled by women, instead of being totally a male province as had been the case previously. However, the situation changed in the latter half of this decade with only one woman appointed out of the last 22 CE positions filled. As a consequence, at the time of writing this report, the number of CE positions held by women has reduced to five out of 35 positions. The purpose of this paper is to gather and analyse data and information relating to public service CE appointments in order to shed light on the reasons for this decline in the numbers of females appointed to such positions, and to establish what could be done to increase the chances of women being appointed to CE positions.

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New Zealand's population is rapidly ageing. It is estimated that in 2031 those 65 and older will represent 35 per cent of the population aged 15-64. While part of this increase is due to healthy ageing, nevertheless the number of people requiring some form of care is projected to dramatically increase. It is projected that 48,200 paid caregivers will be needed by 2036 to look after a growing number of older disabled New Zealanders requiring high levels of care and support. It is highly unlikely that the local supply will be sufficient to meet this demand. Therefore immigration of low-skill workers needs to be considered as a part of the measures needed to alleviate the future pressures on the demand for paid caregivers for the elderly. New Zealand does not have a formal scheme for caregiver migration. However there has been a rapid and growing reliance on migrant caregivers for the elderly over the last five years. Globally as the demand for elder care grows, New Zealand may not be able to rely on the current sources of migrant caregivers for the elderly and alternative regions such as Melanesia and non-traditional parts of Asia need to be considered. While temporary migration is one option, programmes that provide pathways to permanent migration also need to be considered.

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Since the 1960s and 1970s New Zealand and other industrialised countries have moved from a situation where most mid-life men were (1) in full-time paid work, (2) married and living with dependent children, (3) highly unlikely to be in receipt of benefit income, and (4) most likely to be economically supporting their partner and children. However in recent decades social and economic changes have radically altered these life course arrangements. In a companion paper, [the authors] document the decline in mid-life male participation in employment and families. [The authors] focus particularly on the emergence of a small, but significant, group of low-skilled mid-life men who are neither employed nor living with partners and children. These men on the margins of paid work and family life do not appear to have benefited from the liberalisation of either sex roles or the labour market over recent decades. In this paper [the authors] review the New Zealand and international literature that has sought to explain both the decline of employment and family life amongst mid-life men, as well as the inter-connections between paid work and participation within families. [The authors’] reading of the literature, together with their interpretation of the descriptive New Zealand data, is that the labour market has been a key driver of the observed changes. [The authors] argue that a decline in demand for low-skilled manual labour, and an increase in labour market competition, has restricted opportunities for some mid-life men. Declining employment and stagnating earnings may has also have influenced the extent of partnering and male participation in family life.

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Population growth means an increasing number of young people are likely to want to enrol in bachelor degree study. However, constrained government finances have led to the government capping funding. The result is that many education providers are restricting entry to courses. One way to restrict entry is to set academic requirements that are higher than the university entrance requirements. However, institutions, as well as many people in wider society, recognise the need to support diversity and social justice within education and ensure no groups are significantly under-represented. While this paper is built around the question of whether European men have shifted from over-representation to under-representation in bachelor degree study, ultimately it is about identifying which groups face the greatest barriers to bachelor level study. Historically, those groups most under-represented in bachelor degree study were women, Maori, and Pasifika. Now, women are significantly over-represented in most areas of study. Overall, women have higher levels of academic achievement, so are more likely to gain entry to bachelors study than men. However, Maori and Pasifika women remain significantly under-represented on some measures and European men are either strongly or slightly under-represented depending on what measure is used. The groups most clearly under-represented on all key measures are Maori and Pasifika males.

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Adolescence involves a wide variety of transitions to adult roles and responsibilities. These transitions include leaving home and school, getting a job, forming relationships, and sometimes having children. This paper reports on research that has investigated the changing nature of youth transitions in New Zealand over the last 30 years. [The] research aimed to uncover whether birth cohorts of young people have undertaken the transition to adulthood differently, and if so, what caused the differences. [The authors] found important changes in the nature of youth transitions. [They] also found that for cohorts who were born in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the transition to adulthood differed from that experienced by both the preceding and later cohorts. The evidence suggests that the state of the labour market at the time was a key driver of these differences. There are a range of important policy implications from this study, particularly in the context of the current economic recession.

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Internationally there is much research showing that achievement within the education sector is a key determinant of positive labour market outcomes as well as supporting many other areas of wellbeing. Against a backdrop of overall strong and very positive improvements in educational participation and achievement, there is evidence that a gendered 'education transition' has taken place in New Zealand. The transition in tertiary education is demonstrated by higher rates of participation and achievement of women relative to men, particularly among the Maori and Pacific communities. Does this transition matter? Certainly in the past higher participation and achievement by men prompted much concern about the need for women to improve their relative outcomes. While now there is some concern expressed about boys' achievement within schooling, the same level of disquiet is not being expressed about the relative underperformance of men in tertiary education. In this sector concerns focus on overall Maori and Pacific under-representation, and there is still attention given to female under-representation in areas such as engineering or building. Is this because the gaps that favour women are minor differences or, in fact, are they new and important disparities? The authors find there is no objective measure that can indicate when gender gaps are important. However, historically gaps of the size currently found in tertiary education, but in favour of men, did cause concern. And currently similar sized gaps, again in favour of men, in areas such as pay continue to be high on public policy agendas. Further complicating this analysis of gaps is whether absolute gains to both men and women are considered, or whether simply relative positions are examined. Overall, the paper suggests that much of the gender analysis undertaken within the tertiary education sector, as well as within much of the wider policy world, remains based on a premise of female disadvantage or, alternatively, focuses on very specific areas of female disadvantage while often ignoring parallel male disadvantage. Focusing on one part of a binary population, without looking at the other part, has the potential to create new inequalities. The authors suggest that this needs to change to allow a more sophisticated analysis of gender and ethnic gaps. This includes a requirement to consider the growing heterogeneity of choices and outcomes for women and men, as well as identifying and overcoming the remaining constraints on choice for both men and women.

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New Zealand's workforce is ageing. At the time of the 2001 Census, 48 per cent of the total labour force was aged 40 plus, and this had risen to 52 per cent by 2006. The proportions aged 55 plus grew from 14 per cent to 18 per cent over the 2001-2006 period. By 2012, the median age of the labour force is projected to reach 42. Skills and labour shortages are emerging, with serious economic implications if measures are not taken to improve labour force participation rates and to increase productivity. This research aims to explore the attitudes of employers to ageing workforce issues and to find out what actions and adjustments are already being made to meet the challenges. It is a joint project by the Institute for Policy Studies at Victoria University of Wellington and the New Zealand Institute of Management (NZIM). Stage 1 was a postal survey of NZIM members, conducted in mid-2007. Stage 2 consisted of 20 face-to-face interviews with respondents from Stage 1.

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International labour mobility has been on the rise in recent decades. In many countries including New Zealand, there has been a significant shift from permanent migration to temporary migration in order to meet labour demands in critical sectors. While many of those on the move are highly skilled, globally there is demand for particular types of low skill workers. However, almost all low skill workers who are legal migrants are temporary migrants and the main avenue for regulating the movement of low skill workers internationally has been guest worker schemes or temporary migrant worker programmes (TMWP). This paper focuses on the host country, that is New Zealand's perspective, and specifically on the human rights and labour law issues that will be relevant for any future expansion of low skill migration to New Zealand. In particular the focus is on low skill caring and related work rather than work in areas such as construction, manufacturing or primary sector industries.

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Over the past decade the dairy industry has grown to the point where it is New Zealand's premier exporter. This growth has been associated with significant structural changes to the industry. In particular, there has been a widespread conversion from small, family-owned and managed farms that were traditionally characterised by high levels of self-employment to large-scale 'factory' style farms that are dependent upon non-family, mainly casualised, and partially seasonal labour who typically work long hours. In economies such as the United States, these low skills jobs reflecting a combination of migrant status and low pay have been given the label of 'essential worker'. In this paper, the authors consider essential farm workers in the dairy industry. They reflect on the changing characteristics of such workers, especially a greater reliance on temporary migrant workers. In doing so, the authors make some comparisons with policies recently put in place to attract workers for the horticulture industry. In particular the authors focus on how the horticulture industry has turned to the Pacific for workers whereas dairying has turned more towards Asia, particularly the Philippines. Three main datasets are used: Census data, Linked employee-employer data (LEED), and information from the Department of Labour on temporary work permits.

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In New Zealand, as in all industrialised countries, demand for health services has been increasing. Studies of the changing nature of medical workforce often focus on gender and migration separately. In addition, the living arrangements of doctors are rarely considered. This study uses both migration and census data to focus on three main questions. In the last two decades (1986 to 2006), how has the mix of doctors changed in terms of sex and whether born in New Zealand overall, and what are the differences across the main urban areas, other urban areas and rural areas? How have the living arrangements for doctors changed over this time period? If in a couple, how have the educational and employment status of partners changed over this time period?

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