Remember when Key’s excuse for rising unemployment was that it was a “lagging indicator” and the numbers would soon fall? Well, that was 3 years ago and its been lagging a hell of a long time because, since then 25,000 more Kiwis have become unemployed. And remember when the HLFS was “notoriously volatile”? That was a year and a half ago – unemployment is up 20,000 since then. So, what was the excuse yesterday with the shocking unemployment numbers?
And they are shocking:
13,000 more unemployed in the last quarter. That’s 1,000 people per week. That’s 200 jobs lost a day.
175,000 unemployed – the highest in 20 years.
The unemployment rate up to 7.3%, the highest since 1999.
The jobless (the unemployed plus those who have basically given up actively looking) up to nearly 300,000 a massive 115,000 increase under National.
When you add in the people who want more hours, there are now over 400,000 Kiwis looking for work – and that’s up by 150,000 under Key.
Key blames the statistics. Insinuates that they’re wrong. His proof – ‘anecdotal evidence’. He says we’ll have to wait for future HLFSs to see if there’s really a problem… of course, if they’re bad he’ll make up excuse about them too.
Did you see that cringe-worthy bit in the US election coverage where, just after all the major networks had called Ohio and, therefore, the election for Obama, Karl Rove was on ranting and raving that the statistical models were flawed and it was all going to be OK? Key is over Karl Rove.
The guy’s head isn’t in the sand. It’s up his arse.
Joyce, he blames the rest of the world, says the weak economy elsewhere is hurting New Zealand…. except, the facts show otherwise.
In 15 of the 34 OECD countries, unemployment has dropped in the last year. The only countries to have an increase of our size or larger: Greece, Israel, Italy, New Zealand, Portugal, and Spain. Illustrious company we’re keeping under National.
This government is a failure. It has failed in its basic duty to run an economy that creates work for those who want to work. And all the excuses in the world can’t cover that failure up.
Powered by WPtouch Mobile Suite for WordPress