New Zealand unemployment rate surges past Australia's
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Jobless numbers have made the highest quarterly jump for more than 20 years as the recession finally translated into mass job losses.
The number of unemployed jumped from 5% to 6% of the workforce in the June quarter, according to Statistics New Zealand’s Household Labour Force Survey released this morning.
The rise was well above average market economists' expectations of a jump to 5.6%. It was also the largest quarterly increase since September 1988, which was in the depths of the long 1987-92 recession.
It meant New Zealand leap-frogged Australia’s unemployment figure, which was at 5.8% in June.
Since 2003 New Zealand’s rate has generally been around a percentage point lower than Australia’s but New Zealand has now been in recession for well over a year while recession hasn’t arrived across the Tasman.
In overall numbers unemployment increased by 24,000 people, taking the number of unemployed to 138,000, the highest number since the Asian Crisis recession which tailed off in June 1999.
Within those numbers are several disparate trends.
The bulk of the drop off in numbers employed are women – female full time employment fell by 16,000, whereas male full time employment actually grew slightly – but only if part time jobs are included.
There is an overall large increase in part time employment. Male part time jobs increased by 0.6% to reach 147,000 – the highest number ever. Female part time employment increased by 0.3%.
The survey also shows a continuation of the jump in the numbers of older people in the workforce.
The number of people aged 60-64 in the workforce increased by 10,600, and the number of over 65s grew by 8700.
The numbers of young people in employment fell – the 15-19 age group by 23,400.
As a measure of economic performance, the number of hours worked has declined markedly – 1.9% for the quarter and 3.5% for the year.
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Comments and questions13
So while older generations seem to be now working longer, our younger generation seems to be falling off the bandwagon.
I'm starting to believe we are creating a generation of lazy, lost souls.
I find it weird that when unemployment rises during a recession, someone always says its because the next generation is lazy.
I'm not at all sure that recessions cause laziness.....
"So while older generations seem to be now working longer, our younger generation seems to be falling off the bandwagon.
I'm starting to believe we are creating a generation of lazy, lost souls."
The unemployment stats tell us how many people WANT work but can't get it. Youth unemployment is high, telling us that lots of young people are trying to work but can't find any work. I wouldn't call that lazy.
The large increae in numbers of unemployed just demonstrates how much like the 'Emerors Clothes' the job creation programme of teh Clark -Cullen era was.
Most of teh newly jobless never really had jobs, thet were part of a 'make work appear to be emplyed scam' put in place by the Clark government to disguise teh economic damage she and Cullen were doing.
I was just about to defend the work ethic of today's youth (hey I'm only 22 so I'm still part of that group) but I see Blair and Matt have beaten me to it. The number of lazy people must have gone up really quickly in the last three months!
I believe there are two main problems that cause high unemployment. One is the 'stickiness' of wages, a problem pointed to by Austrian economists. During recessions both commodity prices and asset prices tend to drop but for various reasons the cost of labour (which is a commodity) doesn't drop as quickly, if at all.
When prices and profits drop, unskilled workers become too expensive relative to their productivity (partly due to minimum wage laws) and they are usually let go while skilled workers with higher productivity stay on. This is why unemployment is so high among youth and Maori and always rises quicker than general unemployment when things go pear-shaped.
The other problem is that unemployment can represent over-investment in certain sectors during the boom period. When the number of jobs in a sector permanently drops due to structural changes in the economy, it can take years to move those workers into other fields of employment as they need to retrain and possibly move to new locations to find work.
At least young people have time to do this; however, there is a risk young people who have trouble finding work now may become discouraged and end up as a drain on the taxpayer. This is why the government needs cut the minimum wage to give these people a chance at finding work rather than denying them opportunities and then calling them lazy to get the redneck vote.
The perception on youth is their sloppy work ethics when employed ,the message they send to employers the country owes them a living,now they are getting awake up call and they have to face reality in the real world.
What we need to do is get rid of those free loaders drawing pension.
You would have thought after getting everything for nothing their whole lives, selling off national assets to maintain their lifestyles, buying up all the houses so no one can now afford to live here they would have had enough.
Maybe that attitude needs to be revisited
(bleat but I paid my taxes my whole life - yeah but your grandkids will be paying your debts long after you are gone, great legacy)
I thought the beautiful people who gave all the wonderful benefits and technology and freedom beyond belief are intitled to some reward, after all what have losers like RED and his ilk ever done for NZother than feel its all about them with their complete ignorance of the real facts, foreever with their lack of empathy and good manners and respect for the people who fought and died so maggots like him can get away with such ignorance
At 24 I guess Im part of this so called "lazy generation" and its a load of crap, you want to come to my work place for a day and see whos lazy, theyre all aged 40-60 and have worked most of their lives with unions to protect them from genuine employers who are trying to contribute to the growth of this country from terminating their employment
Some of the comments above show an appalling tendency to criticise one sector of the population, for no valid reason. Why rubbish a whole generation of young people because this is where the largest drop in employment is seen?
Why not apply some thought as to what may be the underlying casue? Have you all forgotten that Greens/Labour persisted over the last 9 years and pushing up Youth pay rates until they equalized wqith adult rates?
As a result, why would an employer take on a young inexperienced worker, one who one knows will often only stay in one job for a few months before drifting off to another. Instead of the growing number of experienced adult who have been made redundant? Have life skills, office expereince, good people handling skills, and know th value of a reliable work ethic?
I wouldn't mind a day at your workplace being a 34 year old. Maybe you could arrange that for me for 2 days at least.
Ive worked for over forty years. Don't see much point in it. I get to keep half what I earn. Why not work only the half I get to keep.
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