Key’s making excuses for his government’s pathetic record on jobs. Unemployment is going the wrong way but Key calls another 2,000 people without jobs to 162,000 – the highest number since 1994 – a “very small, technical rise“. 65,000 more unemployed under National. And we’re doing relatively badly. We’ve gone from 6th lowest unemployment in the OECD to 14th.
What’s Joyce’s genius solution? More mining and drilling. First off, it takes 5 to 10 years from starting to look for stuff to mine to actually producing. Second, mining and oil employ only 5,500 people across the country. National would need to increase mining and drilling by 1200% to replace the jobs they have lost so far.
It’s manufacturing that’s hurting. 25,000 jobs lost under National, 42,000 since manufacturing employment peaked in 2004. We need smart monetary policy because right now the high dollar means manufacturers can’t compete on the international market and it can’t compete domestically against cheap imports.
And it’s Christchurch that’s hurting. 1 in 10 jobs lost since the earthquakes began. And about 1 in 20 gone from the Canterbury region. Gerry Brownlee has sat on his fat arse so long that the question is no longer how many jobs the rebuild will create and when but if there will be a rebuild at all.
Think about it. If you’re a commercial developer and you’ve got your insurance payout, are you going to build commercial and retail space in a city that people are leaving, or are you going to go to Auckland or Australia? And if you’ve got a residential payout are you going to stay in a city where jobs are disappearing, where you could be next if you haven’t lost your jobs already? No, you’ll go to Auckland or Australia. Canterbury has lost a net 850 people overseas so far this year and the internal migration numbers aren’t known but appear to be much higher.
The momentum in Christchurch is very worrying. The Government’s unwillingness to even acknowledge there’s a problem is just as worrying.
The Government is now actually sucking jobs out of the economy with its public service cuts, which multiply the job cuts throughout the economy.
And all the Government can do is say ‘unemployment benefit numbers are down’, which of course means that more jobless Kiwis are having to get by without any public support. Hardly something to skite about.
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