An improvement in employment figures for the September quarter has been welcomed, but there is still plenty to be concerned about, the Labour Party says.Figures released by Statistics NZ today said the unemployment rate fell to 6.4 percent in the Septembe
An improvement in employment figures for the September quarter has been welcomed, but there is still plenty to be concerned about, the Labour Party says.
Figures released by Statistics NZ today said the unemployment rate fell to 6.4 percent in the September quarter from 6.9 percent in the previous three months, as the number of people employed rose 23,000 or 1 percent to 2.19 million.
At the same time, seasonally adjusted figures showed the number of people unemployed fell 10,000 or 6.1 percent to 150,000.
Figures for men and women diverged, with female unemployment rising to 7.2 percent from 6.8 percent in the previous quarter, while the male unemployment rate fell to 5.7 percent from 6.9 percent.
Speaking for Social Development Paula Bennett, Employment Minister Kate Wilkinson said the economy had grown for five consecutive quarters and that was starting to result in more businesses hiring staff.
"However, there is clearly more work to do and the Government is committed to maintaining its relentless focus on jobs."
Labour's social development spokeswoman Annette King said the dip was good news, but numbers were high, and compared to last year, unemployment was still flat.
"While the rate has declined slightly, the number of people out of work is the same now as it was a year ago -- that shows the economy is still stalled despite the prime minister's claim we're recovering at an aggressive rate," she said.
There was concern that the number of Maori and Pacific people who were unemployed has risen compared to the same quarter last year, and that the rate of women out of work had climbed, she said.
"This Government's economic plan to build cycleways, hold job summits and mine national parks won't solve the dire unemployment situation. What we need is more investment in apprenticeships, skilled training and research and development," Ms King said.
Council of Trade Unions secretary Peter Conway said the figures were a welcome step in the right direction, "but the improvement is neither fast enough nor substantial enough. It is also a higher figure than the 6.2 percent forecast by the Reserve Bank".
There were still 243,500 jobless people in New Zealand, including the 150,000 officially unemployed, he said. "There are also 110,000 part-time workers who would like to work more hours.
"We know that the labour marker lags in any recovery. The problem is we don't even know if there is a recovery, let along how long the lag will be in terms of jobs."
