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Cambridge Journal of Economics 28:59-72 (2004)
Cambridge Journal of Economics, Vol. 28, No. 1, © Cambridge Political Economy Society 2004; all rights reserved

Outsourcing and the provision of welfare-related services to unemployed youth in New Zealand

Robert Strathdee*

Address for correspondence: School of Education, Murdoch University, South Street, Murdoch, Western Australia; email: strathdee{at}central.murdoch.edu.au

JEL classifications: I28, I38, J42, J68

Concentrating on New Zealand's welfare-to-work policy, this paper draws on interview data to explore the impact of ‘outsourcing’ on tutors who work with young, unemployed people. Contracting independent organisations to provide services, or outsourcing, as it is euphemistically known, has become standard practice in business and is assuming a central role in social policy in many Western nations. It is argued that outsourcing is used to control the practices of those who work with unemployed people in New Zealand. The data show that outsourcing achieves this control by creating uncertainty over the tutors' own employment situation. In this respect, outsourcing helps create a regulatory framework in which the tutors seek to secure their own employment by improving their tutees' employability.

Key Words: Workfare • Welfare-to-work • Labour-market policy • Welfare reform

Manuscript received June 22, 2001; final version received February 4, 2002.


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