Kalistani Major History

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Premier Perry Addresses National Syndicate of Unions
Continues to promote Zero Growth Policies
Eshar, Odufaray
April 15, 5055


Premier Diego Perry talks to the Union of Unions about the Employment Situation in Kalistan

Recent discussions of the world's largest economies has led the Kalistani Government to commission a comprehensive study of Kalistan's workforce, titled "The National Survey of Labor Statistics". The Premier of the Republic delivered the findings to the National Syndicate of Unions at Eshar Odufaray last week. Below is a transcript of his short speech:

... And we conclude therefore that the situation in Kalistan's workforce seems to be in line with other Republics of our size and economic levels.

To wit, below are some summary data from the Executive Summary of the Report on Kalistani Labor, provided by the Joint Labor Taskforce, led by Dr. Vincent Casey of Kaliburg PolyTechnic University and Dr. Lora Hardison of Kaliburg Republican University.

Kalistan's total working age population consists of all citizens from the age of 18 to 60. This represents a total of 61.3 percent of the population, or a total of 61.2 Million. Younger than this, Kalistani children are in school, and at 18 officially join the National Service Program. The official retirement age in the Republic is 60 years of age.

Total Workforce participation in Kalistan is 64.3 percent, or 39.34 Million Kalistanis. Division of Labor across the Republic is roughly split evenly between public sector strategic Nationalized Industries and Government Services and the Private Sector. Public Sector economic activity is primarily focused on extraction and processing of raw materials associated with KALNAPECO, KALNAFERCO, and KALMILINCO, as well as Public sector agriculture activities in the National Grower's Association, National Energy production, the National Rail System, and the Republican bureaucracy. Private Sector activates focus on manufacturing in the Steel Industry, automotive industry, high tech Industry and material's processing industry, as well as most services.

Sector breakdown is as follows, over both Public and Private Sectors
Energy and Resources Extraction- 28 percent
Agriculture- 19 percent
Industrial- 20 Percent
Services- 33 percent
--(Tourism and Entertainment)-17 Percent
--(Retail)- 51 Percent
--(Finance and Banking)-18 percent
--(Transportation)- 12 Percent
--(Legal Services)- 2 Percent

Of the 21.48 Million Kalistanis of working age population who are not in the workforce, 2.23 Million are both unemployed and actively looking for labor for an unemployment rate of 3.36 percent. The National Service Program accounts for another 8.38 million: 3,885,000 conscripts, and nearly four and a half million enlistees. 95,000 citizens are either active or reserve regular Force, while the SP Militia employs approximately 1.4 million Partisans. The official unemployment rate reflects loosening of labor protections in the last ten years due to Liberal Government, and while it is historically higher than average, it is still very low in terms of most modern economies.

Other reasons for not participating in the work Force are: Illness or Disability (935,000), Early Retirement (1.135 Million), Home Responsibilities (776,520) and Other/unspecified reasons (3.2 Million). The remaining 3.4 million nonparticipants in the Labor Force are in some form of University, college, or independent work which is not counted toward labor statistics. A very generous Universal Basic Income and strong labor protection ensures that despite the fact that 21 million Kalistanis of working age do not participate in economic activity, poverty levels are very low across the Republic and workers can feel free to take their time to select jobs that suit their interests, rather than being forced to accept labor to fend off starvation, as they are in nations which do not maintain the strong social floor that Kalistan has long maintained. Combined with nearly universal participation in the National Service Program, widespread participation in both formal universities and vocational training schools, and continued zero growth policies of the Republican Government, which have only recently begun to lift, workforce nonparticipation serves primarily to provide upward pressure toward wages, that is only marginally offset by a slightly elevated level of unemployment.

These statistics were verified by a national survey conducted between September 5053 and August 5054. Respondents include a wide swath of Kalistani employers in all five districts, as well as statistics departments in the Republican Government, the district governments, the Nationalized Industries, the National Service Program, the National Food Bank program, the National Growers' Syndicate, ODEN, and the Kalistani Regular Forces and RSMoK/SPoK. Full citations are found in the Report.

The Premier then took questions from gathered press for about an hour. The full speech was broadcasted on KRTVN TV 1 and Radio 8, as well as Radio Kaliburg.