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A little something from the perspective file.\xa0

Although things are dire and dour and straight up and down bad, in some areas they are not as bad as headlines would lead you to believe.\xa0

The best line of high drama I have read this week was around jobs. "It's like the Hunger Games", it said.\xa0

Is it? Really?\xa0

A lot of press has been given to those who have lost jobs of late.\xa0

The reason for this is because we haven't gone through a job loss scenario for a while in this country.\xa0

But if you've been around a while it isn't like the hunger games, or anywhere close to it.\xa0

The unemployment rate is currently 4.3%. It might be a little bit higher given some of our data is slow, but at worst it's thought it may get to 5% or a little bit over.\xa0

In a historic context, 5% is a little more than normal. What we are living through is moderately normal.\xa0

The same can be said about interest rates when it's in the 6's, maybe early 7's. Yes, it's a lot higher than what they have been, but in context it's not remotely unusual at all.\xa0

In these examples is the value of institutional knowledge.\xa0

Much of the coverage of job losses and the ensuing Hunger Games has been based around the public service, which brings in another interesting aspect of jobs and choices\xa0

I read the plight of a person recently laid off who was off to Australia because the work they did no longer desisted here. They were going to Melbourne where the Government puts more funding into the social work they do. Which is great, if that\u2019s your calling. But choosing a job that's no niche that it no longer exists surely was a risky choice in the first place.\xa0

That's like the person whose story I also read who got laid off from the Auckland light rail project. Surely when they applied they knew that wasn\u2019t long for this world?\xa0

Having lost a couple of jobs myself there is no question it sucks, especially if it comes as no fault of your own.\xa0

The job ads may be down and the applications may be up, but at no point is what we are going through any more arduous, difficult or unusual than we have been through many a time before, and indeed will go through again.\xa0

What I suspect has changed is resilience.\xa0

There isn't as much of it about these days and that\u2019s why "normal" seems like the Hunger Games. \xa0 \xa0 \xa0\xa0

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