One day at a time

Christchurch confronts enormous conflicting crises: vanishing jobs and massive skills shortages.

By Rebecca Macfie In Letter from Christchurch

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7th May, 2011

Mag Features

First the earthquakes, then the economic tsunami. So far, the tidal wave of job losses has been held back by the Government’s special wage subsidy for firms unable to trade because their premises are too damaged or their buildings are locked behind a cordon. But now that buffer is being withdrawn, and many fear tens of thousands of redundancies are about to crash across the city. Until mid-April almost 8000 businesses qualified for the earthquake support subsidy (ESS), enabling them to keep paying wages to 44,000 workers. More than 10,000 sole traders were also on the scheme, and another ...

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