The future Māori workforce - Part one

We have a window of opportunity now, for us collectively, to understand and proactively manage the transition to a new future.

Many are worried that the world of work is heading for massive unemployment. Workers will have little or no bargaining power, and we will experience vital skills gaps. We do not know if these will materialise, but we are confident that the future of work will largely depend on decisions made now, that will either support or undermine this unknown future. With the right policies, and support from government, institutions, business, iwi, hapū, and whānau, the opportunities that new technologies, globalisation and longer lives will bring can be realised and the risks mitigated.

Rather than obsessing about mass technological unemployment, of which there is nearly no evidence, we’d better make sure that our education and training programs, as well as our transition and income support programs, are up to the task of preparing the future Māori workforce for the more sophisticated job requirements of the next century.

How the world has changed from 2009 to 2019

Only ten years ago the biggest companies in the world were dominated by the energy and financial sector. Today it is dominated by technology companies.

Source: Visual capitalists retrieved from https://www.visualcapitalist.com/a-visual-history-of-the-largest-companies-by-market-cap-1999-today/

Find out more

This article is part one of a series on our research into the future of the Māori workforce. Find more about this project at:

Part two: Writing the future work narrative

Part three: Exploring the forces that shaped the Māori workforce

Part four: Exploring the current situation