1 in 6 Kiwis looking for work under National

Written By: - Date published: 12:16 pm, November 19th, 2012 - 9 comments
Categories: jobs - Tags:

A closer look at the Household Labourforce Survey reveals startling facts: in the four years since the ‘brighter future’ began, in which time the adult population grew by 156,000, the number of fulltime jobs went down by 700. The number of part-time jobs is up a little – 25,000 – but 31,000 more part-timers want full-time work. All up, 1 in 6 Kiwis are looking for work.

Here’s the table for Kiwis who are working or looking for work (it’s all adults over 15 except half a million retirees, 230,000 students, 170,000 stay-at-home parents, and a few others)

 September Quarter 2008 2012
In full-time work                              1,686,000                              1,686,000
Part-time not wanting more hours                                   416,000                                   410,000
Part-time and underemployed                                      82,000                                   113,000
Unemployed and on dole                                      24,000                                      50,000
Unemployed not on dole                                      70,000                                   120,000
Jobless but not unemployed                                      86,000                                   124,000

In 2008, people on the dole, other unemployed, jobless, and underemployed was 1 in 9 of all those in the job market. That’s up to 1 in 6. The number of people who have as much work as they want has actually fallen by 6,000 while the number looking for work has ballooned by 145,000.

The failure to create fulltime work in particular also shows up in the number of unemployed who are looking for fulltime work – four years ago, that was 56,000. Today, it has nearly doubled to 108,000.

Remember, the recession ended 3 and a half years ago. And we’re still going backwards. Remember, we were promised 170,000 more jobs, and have haven’t appeared.

In a day or two, I’ll have a look at the demographics and regions worst hit by National’s jobs failure.

9 comments on “1 in 6 Kiwis looking for work under National ”

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  1. Lanthanide 1
    19 November 2012 at 12:50 pm

    What does “Jobless but not unemployed” actually mean? Seems like a bit of a contradiction.

    • Pete 1.1
      19 November 2012 at 1:23 pm

      I guess they are partners in one income households and therefore ineligible to receive assistance.

      • Lanthanide 1.1.1
        19 November 2012 at 3:01 pm

        Pretty daft definition of ‘unemployed’ then if it doesn’t include people who don’t have jobs.

  2. anthony bull 2
    19 November 2012 at 1:37 pm

    “Remember the recession ended 3 and a half years ago”

    So, the global economic recession (2008-2012) that is still ongoing has no impact on our economy?

    Thats a strange claim to be trying to make……

    • infused 2.1
      19 November 2012 at 2:06 pm

      Left logic.

    • Lanthanide 2.2
      19 November 2012 at 2:58 pm

      The ‘technical’ definition of a recession is two quarters of negative growth in a row. We haven’t had two quarters of negative growth in a row for 3 1/2 years now, so the recession has ‘technically’ ended, even if in practice it obviously hasn’t.

  3. tracey 3
    19 November 2012 at 4:39 pm

    By partner was unemplyed for twelve months but never sought govt assistance therefore she doesnt show in official stats.

    • Lanthanide 3.1
      19 November 2012 at 8:44 pm

      You don’t have to seek government assistance to show up in the official stats.

      In any event, the stats are compiled from the quartery household survey, which is simply a sample of some number of households (don’t know how many, but I’d guess around 2,000). The results of that survey is than extrapolated out to attempt to represent the entire population.

      So strictly speaking, unless you answer the survey, you’re not included in the official stats.

  4. kiwicommie 4
    20 November 2012 at 11:00 am

    Well statistics are fudged daily by National, when reality doesn’t suit them they create their own. Disraeli’s ‘lies, damn lies and statistics’ quote is correct when put against how it treats statistics.

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