NRT: 28,000 unemployed under National

41 comments on “NRT: 28,000 unemployed under National ”

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1. Anne 1

   3 February 2016 at 2:51 pm

   I thought the unemployment rate always dropped at this time of the year due to Summer seasonal employment. Come March/April when the seasonal stuff (eg, fruit picking etc.) dries up then unemployment increases again.
2. Kevin 2

   3 February 2016 at 2:54 pm

   You don’t keep a lid on wages unless you have high unemployment.

   SOP for National.
3. Enough is Enough 3

   3 February 2016 at 3:16 pm

   National lies about absolutely everything.

   Why would anyone trust their shonkey employment numbers?

   I think they are more likely to be around the 7% mark
   • Hayden 3.1

     3 February 2016 at 4:44 pm

     You are an idiot. The numbers are Stats NZ numbers. If you think they are politically manipulated then you need to take a lesson as to how govt works in this country.
     • DoublePlusGood 3.1.1

       3 February 2016 at 4:58 pm

       Stats NZ have pretty clearly shown in the past couple of years that they’re not above having their independence compromised.
       • Jones 3.1.1.1

         3 February 2016 at 6:17 pm

         By manipulating data? I would expect the compromise coming in the form of what is measured and how it is measured.
   • greywarshark 3.2

     4 February 2016 at 12:22 pm

     Enough…
     I doubt that you are an idiot, more a thoughtful sceptic. And rightly so. The government can massage numbers and methods and targeted people. The Thatcher government if I remember correctly, changed their methods of unemployment measurement a number of times. Comparisons can never be made then on an equal basis, ie the old saying that you can’t compare apples with oranges applies.

     And at the base of all our shonky, supposedly clear statistics on labour in this country, is the one that used to apply (probably still does) that someone doing one hour of paid work in a week is counted as employed. Coldly and statistically yes, though it’s a stretch. As an indication of true levels of unemployment such stats are not useful information of the like that Heyden declares so arrogantly and ignorantly. The numbers are Stats NZ numbers. If you think they are politically manipulated then you need to take a lesson as to how govt works in this country.
4. Colonial Viper 4

   3 February 2016 at 3:27 pm

   English has kept spending into the economy and has consequently kept a lid on unemployment.

   He will be looking at short term ways to push the number even lower, in the run up to elections in 16-18 months.
   • Ad 4.1

     3 February 2016 at 3:56 pm

     Treasury definitely now gets pump-priming into a low-growth economy. Key understands it principally as a signal to the broader private developer investment community.

     Sooner or later Treasury will get around to figuring out which expenditure onto needed stuff generates the most short-term and long-term jobs, and adjust how they spend accordingly.

     Neo-Keynsians all of them, obviously.
   • Stuart Munro 4.2

     3 February 2016 at 4:02 pm

     Most of the spending has been very poorly targeted however – English is no Keynesian – he lacks the discipline – which is why he never produces real realised growth and jobs.

     ‘14% left the workforce’ in summer – when it is more usual for the workforce to grow.

     This tells us that the austerity driven recession is not relenting at all.
5. The joker 5

   3 February 2016 at 3:43 pm

   This is why the left are in opposition, you never celebrate good things, instead always looking for the negatives.

   You’re hatred for key, and the right, completely consumes and blinds you.
   • Ad 5.1

     3 February 2016 at 3:57 pm

     I sure don’t hate Key; he’s popular and charismatic.

     I just have higher expectations.
   • Sacha 5.2

     3 February 2016 at 4:00 pm

     Why would people think that irrelevant clown is in charge of this govt anyway? pffft
   • Puckish Rogue 5.3

     3 February 2016 at 4:00 pm

     This.

     When things are going well overall and you have some parties saying how bad everything is the voters will simply stop listening because what you say is not what they’re seeing.

     But then the left would just say the voters are stupid for not voting for them anyway
   • sabine 5.4

     3 February 2016 at 6:33 pm

     so we are to celebrate that ‘only’ 28.000 more people are unemployed since National took office.
     You have a funny way of picking stuff for celebration.
     • greywarshark 5.4.1

       4 February 2016 at 12:29 pm

       PR is just living up to his name – a ‘will o’the wisp’ etc. Puckish means playful, mischievous.

       But – will-o’-the-wisp – is quite suitable as a description of him/her.
       a phosphorescent light seen hovering or floating at night on marshy ground, thought to result from the combustion of natural gases.
       a person or thing that is difficult or impossible to reach or catch. Google
       Sounds a bit like a fart!
   • b waghorn 5.5

     3 February 2016 at 7:23 pm

     I couldn’t give a flying fuck if he got unemployment down to 2% nationals methods of gaining power and holding power , yes that’s right dirty politics is enough for me to say the barstards are not for for office.
     New Zealanders should hang there head in shame for tolerating it.
   • The Pink Postman 5.6

     4 February 2016 at 3:15 pm

     You are correct as far as I am concerned Joker ,but then in all my life (85) I have never ever meet a decent Tory and that includes National members. They have always been anti worker and have often used the strong arm of the law to simply crush any workers protests. They can never be trusted when it comes to workers conditions. Over the last few years they have destroyed unions and their unemployment policies have made sure unions are kept down. Working people who think National can be trusted are living i cuckoo land.
6. One Anonymous Bloke 6

   3 February 2016 at 6:32 pm

   I would very much like to know how many who are termed “employed” are receiving income assistance of one sort or another.

   Bill English let the cat out of the bag when he asserted that below a certain income, you don’t pay tax.

   Whether he lied about the threshold or not, so far as I’m aware, if you have one hour a week work you come off the “unemployed” statistics.

   So on the one hand, we have National Party orders creating human rights abuses at WINZ (despite the best efforts of individual employees, the system guarantees it), and on the other we have underemployment being touted as success.

   Slow clap.
   • Muttonbird 6.1

     3 February 2016 at 6:55 pm

     I had to laugh the other day when Blinglish was quoted saying that bottom 50% or so paid no tax at all. It was a part of the usual right wing schtick spouted by the now banned fisiani, and his besotted friends that the top bracket pays all the tax and the bottom bracket pays none. What Blinglish did was an insult to the tens of thousands of hard working families in that bottom 50% who did pay net tax making up for the many tens of thousands of struggling families who couldn’t.

     This is the kind of stats lying the the current government depends on to deliver it’s good news messages.

     Quite frankly I don’t believe the “sharp drop” in unemployment figures is anything other than a restructure of definitions and a shunting of vulnerable souls from one list to another.
     • greywarshark 6.1.1

       4 February 2016 at 3:35 pm

       How can the low income get out of paying tax, whether the Finance Minister declares they don’t or not?

       Maybe it’s not income tax, but 15% on just about everything they buy to eat, for transport, to wear though they might buy from opshops, for repairs. 15% out of every $ is definitely tax, is tax, is actually tax, get it you ACTs (association of consumers and taxpayers who consider yourself special and hard-done-by).
       15% GST is a basic tax and only the rich can afford to find a way around it.
7. Muttonbird 7

   3 February 2016 at 6:41 pm

   Could someone please explain what 14,000 people leaving the workforce in one quarter means?

   I mean it seems a major, major change so what does that actually look like?
   • Murray Baden Simmonds 7.1

     4 February 2016 at 7:14 am

     it looks like an ageing workforce in which a lot of people chose to retire last year before Christmas, Muttonbird. That, among, no doubt a few other things that are everything to do with demographics and little to do with government policy. But the truth won’t get in the way of Joyce and others crowing endlessly about it.
8. TheBlackKitten 8

   3 February 2016 at 7:56 pm

   Unemployment may be down but what about wages vs cost of living? It would be interesting to see comparisons over the years. I bet with the rising values of Auckland housing that this would look like shit for Key. Easy to get unemployment down when wages are so pathetically low, the real trick is to get low unemployment with well paying jobs that give a good standard of living. This is where we should be looking.
   • Reddelusion 8.1

     3 February 2016 at 11:08 pm

     Hence the TPP to grow nz productivity
     • Paul 8.1.1

       3 February 2016 at 11:24 pm

       The TPP will destroy NZ jobs, just like NAFTA did to Canada and the States.

       http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/10/06/the-future-of-trans-pacific-trade/the-trans-pacific-pact-would-kill-jobs-and-consumer-protection

       Do all you right wingers come on this site without doing any research?
     • TheBlackKitten 8.1.2

       4 February 2016 at 8:51 am

       Ha ha ha. You mean the so called trickle down effect where employers make higher profits so pay higher wages? Heard that one before but have yet to see it. In fact, we’ve all been waiting since 84 for that and now have the ECA act to ensure that never happens.
       If the TPPA does create more jobs I doubt very much that they will be higher paying ones that result in a better standard of living for the peasents. More likely, certain companies will just make even higher profits.
     • greywarshark 8.1.3

       4 February 2016 at 12:31 pm

       Derevulsion – more ideas destructive to most NZrs.
9. Redbaiter 9

   4 February 2016 at 3:10 pm

   “You’re hatred for key, and the right, completely consumes and blinds you.”

   Good grief, what kind of “right winger” would support a party that is virtually a continuation of Helen Clark’s governance except maybe even worse. We owe $100 billion spent to support the socialist illusion and each year about $5 billion comes out of the budget to service this debt. Pandering to Maori much worse than Clark ever did. Spending & interfering with the economy far more than Clark ever did. And she was bad enough.

   Supporters of John Key who flop around the blogosphere imagining they are “right wingers” need their heads read. He even described himself as “progressive”. Look it up and see what that really means.

   As for the unemployment figures, I share the opinion a few have expressed above. I reckon they’re mostly BS, and I say why here.

   As soon as the weak and compromising Key is dumped and we can restore the National Party to what its founders meant it to be, (low tax, small govt, low spending) the sooner we can dig this country out of the hole it is in.

   Stop calling this socialist idiot Key right wing. It only props up the left’s similar delusions.
   • UncookedSelachimorpha 9.1

     4 February 2016 at 3:50 pm

     I followed that link to truebluenz….sicked up in the back of my throat a little and needed to burn all my clothes. yuk yuk yuk
   • UncookedSelachimorpha 9.2

     4 February 2016 at 3:54 pm

     “low tax, small govt, low spending”

     Welcome to the third world.
     • Redbaiter 9.2.1

       4 February 2016 at 4:48 pm

       “I followed that link to truebluenz….sicked up in the back of my throat a little and needed to burn all my clothes. yuk yuk yuk”

       I get the same old “its outrageous that you should say such things”, but for God’s sake, I’m being critical of the National Party.

       No pleasing some of you people.
       • ropata 9.2.1.1

         4 February 2016 at 6:25 pm

         minor quibbles with your pro-slavery, pro-death penalty, anti-union views?

         don’t worry JK is a dead-eyed bankster who shares your anti-social agenda.
         he just does what is pragmatic/politically expedient to stay in power… a very smart politician.
       • UncookedSelachimorpha 9.2.1.2

         4 February 2016 at 9:42 pm

         Critical of the National Party, in the sense that you are complaining that they are not as awful yet as you would like them to be.
   • Colonial Viper 9.3

     4 February 2016 at 4:12 pm

     As soon as the weak and compromising Key is dumped and we can restore the National Party to what its founders meant it to be, (low tax, small govt, low spending) the sooner we can dig this country out of the hole it is in.

     Uh, no, the founders of the National Party intended for National to keep Labour out of power.

     The rest of what you mention is just borrowed political ideology from Thatcher and Reagan.
10. Colonial Viper 10

    4 February 2016 at 3:52 pm

    ?????

    In Sept 2008, the NZ population was 4.28M

    Late last year the NZ population was 4.60M, and increase of 320K.

    And the population is now growing at its fastest rate in years. We are adding 7K to 8K population PER MONTH.

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/71124472/New-Zealands-population-growing-at-its-fastest-rate-in-over-a-decade

    Given this having only 28,000 extra unemployed, especially post GFC (which in reality is not just continuing but actually worsening) is actually a reasonable result.

    Not great, but certainly not bad.

    Basically, English is continuing to spend borrowed money into the NZ economy to keep unemployment well tamped down and things chugging along. And he’s going to continue to feed the economic machine in the lead up to what I suspect will be an early-ish election Aug/Sep 2017.
    • Macro 10.1

      4 February 2016 at 4:24 pm

      CV it’s the “Participation rate” that is the problem. There are more people opting out of the job market altogether in particular in the 25 – 34 year bracket.
      http://www.tradingeconomics.com/new-zealand/labor-force-participation-rate
      http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/295704/what's-behind-the-fall-in-unemployment
      They used to be called “drop outs” and its starting to happen all over again. You know – and I know – that for some the constant struggle with WINZ simply becomes too much and they disappear – onto the streets.
      • Colonial Viper 10.1.1

        4 February 2016 at 6:14 pm

        From that RNZ article

        However, the number of people not participating in the labour market grew – with 14,000 people without jobs not looking for work in the last three months of last year.

        Yes it is a concern, but as I said, the population of the country is at least 300K larger than in Helen Clark’s day. A 14K increase in non-participation out of 300K is not really game changing.
        • Macro 10.1.1.1

          4 February 2016 at 6:56 pm

          Oooops CV that’s 14,000 in the last 3 months – not last 6 years. 🙂
          • Colonial Viper 10.1.1.1.1

            4 February 2016 at 7:25 pm

            The sentence actually makes it sound like the numbers grew to 14,000 people in total, not that the numbers grew by 14,000…

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1. Unemployment drops significantly | Your NZ: posted on 3 February 2016 at 8:19 pm

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