unemployment

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No plan to get Kiwis into work

Written By: - Date published: 3:02 pm, February 10th, 2010 - 64 comments

Number of jobless Kiwis = 276,000 Number of jobs plans from Key Government = 0 Key can make all the vague references to faster growth and better economic performance that he likes but while the potential and skill of over a quarter of a million Kiwis is being wasted it will never happen. Getting people […]

Unemployment: real action, not vague promises needed

Written By: - Date published: 4:41 pm, February 6th, 2010 - 43 comments

The Herald reports: “[Key] also raised the 15 per cent Maori unemployment rate, saying improving education outcomes for Maori children would help address that.” Improved education sounds good but: 1) how is Key going to actually lift Maori educational achievement? Not by cutting millions from the education budget like he did last year. Not by […]

Paula, John, seriously, put away the champagne

Written By: - Date published: 12:53 pm, February 6th, 2010 - 2 comments

Paula Bennett and John Key have been, once again, prematurely popping the bottle of champagne to celebrate the end of rising unemployment.   In the face of the shocking 7.3% unemployment rate announced on Thursday, the pair responded by saying ‘ah, but that was December quarter things are better now.’ They pointed to the number […]

The 59,000 failures of John Phillip Key

Written By: - Date published: 10:31 am, February 5th, 2010 - 48 comments

Nearly a year ago, John Key, shaken by the first whispers of disquiet over his government’s month-long holiday at the height of an economic crisis (whispers that would later grow into cries of ‘Do Nothing’ Key), decided to hold the Prime Minister’s Jobs Summit. This would not be a talk-fest, it would be a ‘do-fest’ […]

Unemployment? Blame someone else – Key

Written By: - Date published: 7:35 am, February 5th, 2010 - 53 comments

A panicked, chaotic series of excuses poured forth from John Key’s mouth yesterday as he attempted to shift the blame for the shocking unemployment numbers on to someone, anyone, else: “He told reporters it was important to note the economy was not losing jobs, it was a case of not creating new ones fast enough.” […]

The Government is to blame for record unemployment numbers

Written By: - Date published: 2:54 pm, February 4th, 2010 - 59 comments

Andrew Campbell It should come as no surprise that unemployment hit 7.3% today. That’s what happens when a government does virtually nothing to support job creation when there is a recession. But instead of announcing a plan to address this massive economic and social issue the Minister for Unemployment, Paula Bennett, is blaming a growth […]

22,000 more jobless Kiwis

Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, February 4th, 2010 - 113 comments

Unemployment hit a startling 7.3% in the December quarter, far higher than the 6.8% expected. There are now 159,000 officially unemployed workers in New Zealand. Add in the those who want to work but have given up looking and there are 276,000 jobless Kiwis who wanting a job. That’s the highest number of jobless since […]

More jobs lost, govt does nothing

Written By: - Date published: 9:24 am, February 4th, 2010 - 13 comments

Telecom is threatening to throw up to 1,500 workers out of their jobs so it can increase profits by offshoring. A good government in this situation is talks to the company, uses the bully pulpit. Telecom should be reminded that it is hoping to make a bomb off the government’s broadband fund. They should be reminded that the one […]

Minimum wage myths: unemployment

Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, February 2nd, 2010 - 127 comments

One of the old saws that the Right brings out whenever the topic of increasing the minimum wage comes up is ‘oh no, it will increase unemployment’. They said it this year. The Business Roundtable said it every year as the Fifth Labour Government put up the minimum wage and unemployment kept falling. Hell, they […]

Campbell and Hooton on do nothing Key

Written By: - Date published: 9:19 am, January 26th, 2010 - 23 comments

I can’t work out how to embed audio alone, so here’s a YouTube of Andrew Campbell and Matthew Hooton on the Key Government. Both agree that this government has done little and doesn’t appear to have a plan. Campbell sums up Key’s record: “The NDU yesterday issued a challenge to the Government to do a […]

250,000 jobless and counting

Written By: - Date published: 10:49 am, January 25th, 2010 - 28 comments

Massive jump in dole numbers – minister washes her hands

Written By: - Date published: 3:32 pm, January 22nd, 2010 - 18 comments

You may remember that late last year John Key, Bill English and Paula Bennett could hardly find the words to praise themselves for the falling numbers on the dole. That was until I pointed out that it was a seasonal dip that always occurs between September and November, and, actually, the seasonally dip over the […]

The sharpest edge of the recession

Written By: - Date published: 11:38 am, January 22nd, 2010 - 68 comments

“2500 people waited up to seven hours to apply for one of 150 jobs at a new South Auckland supermarket”* OK, maybe 16 applicants per job isn’t beyond the norm when you’re advertising one at a time but when you’re advertising 150? Think about it, that means there are 2,500 jobless Kiwis just within the […]

Another benefit beat-up

Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, January 20th, 2010 - 24 comments

The Key Government’s anti-beneficiary campaign continues. The latest is a beat-up on long-term beneficiaries. Apparently, 9 people have been on the dole for longer than 20 years, 14 for 15-20 years, and 181 for 10-15 years. ‘Bludgers!’ we’re meant to cry ‘Bludgers!’ But let’s actually think with our brains rather than our jerking knees. This […]

‘3 strikes’, typical ‘Do Nothing’ Key policy

Written By: - Date published: 8:08 am, January 20th, 2010 - 90 comments

The ‘3 strikes’ policy is the kind of policy you put in place when you want to look tough on crime but you have no idea how to actually reduce it, in the same way a cycleway is the jobs plan you have when you don’t have a plan. We know locking people up longer doesn’t […]

Say what?

Written By: - Date published: 8:40 am, January 18th, 2010 - 12 comments

Statements made in Parliament last year, in chronological order: Hon BILL ENGLISH: They have been telling us that we should copy the Australian fiscal stimulus, when Australia’s unemployment rate is close to 6%—whereas our fiscal stimulus has kept our unemployment rate down to 5%. So which one is it: copy Australia’s plan and force the […]

Farrar tries to cover for do nothing govt, and fails

Written By: - Date published: 5:38 pm, January 16th, 2010 - 70 comments

Phil Goff has picked up on the point I made yesterday: while unemployment is falling in Australia due to the $42 billion stimulus package implemented by the Rudd Government, in New Zealand unemployment is still rising while this do nothing government sits on its arse, and unemployment here is now higher than in Aussie for […]

NZ closes the gap with Aussie

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, January 15th, 2010 - 21 comments

Well, I didn’t think it could done but it has been. National has been promising to close the gap with Australia, and damned if it hasn’t happened already. The Nats’ target was 2025, it didn’t even take a year. In fact, we’re now above Australia and accelerating away while they fall. Unfortunately, it’s the wrong […]

Looking tough, wasting money

Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, December 23rd, 2009 - 57 comments

So Paula Bennett wants to force people on the dole to reapply after a year. At best, it’s a waste of money by adding more bureaucracy. At worst, it will leave people who are already in poverty destitute for weeks. You can lose your dole already if you don’t meet the conditions. In particular, if […]

Bennett disappointed by witch-hunt results

Written By: - Date published: 11:23 am, December 22nd, 2009 - 23 comments

Earlier this year, Paula Bennett released the personal details of two women who get the DPB who had opposed her cancelling of a grant designed to get people off the benefit. As far as I’m aware, the Privacy Commissioner still hasn’t published her opinion on Bennett’s bully tactics but it looks like Bennett has got the […]

English’s big promises proven hollow

Written By: - Date published: 9:25 am, December 16th, 2009 - 26 comments

An extraordinary moment in Question Time as John Boscawen skewered National’s hollow promise to close the wage gap with Australia by 2025. Watch the video and listen to Bill English’s voice. He was simply left high and dry when Boscawen asked him for some actual evidence that the gap is going to close: Boscawen: By how much […]

Nats’ ‘stimulus’: $200K per job

Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, December 15th, 2009 - 12 comments

National claims it created 2,300 jobs with its stimulus spending. Of course, most of this supposed stimulus was smoke and mirrors – re-announcing existing spending – and 2,300 is bugger all when there are over quarter of a million Kiwis out of work. But I had a few more problems with this announcement. Firstly, I […]

Govt stimulus creates 2300 jobs

Written By: - Date published: 9:45 am, December 14th, 2009 - 8 comments

“Govt stimulus creates 2300 jobs” reads the headline! It’s a bit misleading though. A more accurate headline would have been – “Labour Govt stimulus creates 2300 jobs”. How’s that, I hear you cry? Follow the money: The Government estimates its economic stimulus package has created about 2300 jobs through increased infrastructure spending of more than […]

Excellent question

Written By: - Date published: 8:57 am, December 9th, 2009 - 9 comments

An excellent question from Labour yesterday, using some familiar numbers: Hon Annette King: When he was reusing ‘unreliable, highly volatile, and potentially misleading’ [Paula Bennett’s words] figures yesterday, was he aware that unemployment drops around this time every year and that this year we are experiencing a smaller than usual seasonal drop of just 2.6 percent, […]

Are you ‘really’ unemployed?

Written By: - Date published: 8:41 am, December 8th, 2009 - 5 comments

Governments use statistical tricks to lower the official unemployment rate. This fun video shows how many jobless people get swept under the carpet. It’s not that the statisticians aren’t aware of the jobless. In the US, they use different definitions of unemployment. ‘U-3’, the official unemployment rate only counts those people who are actively looking […]

Summer’s arrival thanks to me – Key

Written By: - Date published: 6:46 pm, December 7th, 2009 - 11 comments

John Key is still claiming credit for the drop in the number of people on the unemployment benefit that occurs every October and November due to seasonal jobs that disappear after Christmas.   In his press conference today Key said that the number of people on the dole had fallen to 58,500, a 300-odd drop […]

Nats’ dismal record on jobs and benefits

Written By: - Date published: 1:28 pm, November 29th, 2009 - 20 comments

In opposition, National claimed that Labour wasn’t really getting people off benefits, it was just moving them from  unemployment benefit and ‘hiding’ them on the sickness and invalid’s benefits – Paula Bennett repeated the claim just this week in the House. But the facts prove otherwise.   When Labour was in power, there was small […]

It’s not spin, the govt told me

Written By: - Date published: 9:18 am, November 24th, 2009 - Comments Off on It’s not spin, the govt told me

The Dompost reports: “The number of places available on a programme to get young people off the dole will be increased after the Government credited it with a drop in unemployment”. Sigh, it’s the seasons, stupid. There has been no drop in unemployment, that went up to 6.5% in the last stats. The number of […]

It’s the seasons, stupid

Written By: - Date published: 10:11 am, November 23rd, 2009 - 40 comments

Over the last week or so, I’ve heard John Key, Bill English, and Paula Bennett all make self-congratulatory references to the number of people receiving the unemployment benefit decreasing in October. That sounded weird to me. No-one seriously thinks unemployment has stopped increasing. MSD doesn’t regularly release the month by month data but I eventually managed […]

Laugh track

Written By: - Date published: 12:57 pm, November 18th, 2009 - 6 comments

As Irish has already noted, Fran O’Sullivan has savaged John Key’s record on employment and said that Paula Bennett is “too busy puffing her own achievements to pay much heed” to warnings on the dire long term-effects of high youth unemployment. What caught my eye was her quote from Key at the start. President Obama is looking for ways […]

Urgent action needed on job creation

Written By: - Date published: 9:29 am, November 17th, 2009 - 9 comments

We’ve talked a lot about the negative effects of unemployment on the unemployed and their communities (depression, crime, family breakup, poor health, poor educational outcomes for children etc) but there’s another group that benefits from fewer people being on benefits – people with jobs. Check out the graph. At the end of the 1990s, there […]