It is impossible to tell how many jobs were created or saved by last year's job summit, but it did help stave off the worst effects of the recession, Prime Minister John Key said yesterday.Questioned in Parliament today about employment policy, Mr Key sai
It is impossible to tell how many jobs were created or saved by last year's job summit, but it did help stave off the worst effects of the recession, Prime Minister John Key said yesterday.
Questioned in Parliament today about employment policy, Mr Key said he believed that unemployment had peaked and more jobs were being created.
Labour deputy leader Annette King questioned whether the jobs summit called at the height of the recession and financial crisis had been effective.
Mr Key said it was not possible to quantify the success of the summit in numbers of jobs.
"That is impossible to tell. In some cases we can estimate the number of jobs created by a government initiative. For example, over 2000 jobs were created by the home insulation fund. However, we have no way of knowing about the jobs that were created or saved in the private sector as a result of the summit. All we know is that it was a success," Mr Key said.
Ms King said Mr Key had personally backed a national cycleway as creating 4500 job, but so far it had generated 56 short term jobs and many more reports and meetings.
My Key said that 18 cycleways were still planned covering 2000 kilometres of New Zealand’s landscape from Kaitaia to the Bluff, and over time it would create more jobs than that.
It was also predicted that up to 25,000 people could be assisted by the nine-day working fortnight scheme, but only 600 people had been assisted, Ms King said.
Mr Key said many firms had used the scheme as a backstop.
"If fewer people did use the nine-day fortnight, then that is to be celebrated, because it means fewer people were losing their jobs. Thirdly, I remember Opposition members getting up to say the unemployment rate would be 10 or 11 percent. The Government has done a lot better than that and the rate is on the way down, which shows the success of the job summit," Mr Key said.
"It is my estimate that the unemployment rate will drop this year. Businesses have reported being positive about hiring new staff over the coming year, and we have already seen the number on the unemployment benefit drop by over 4000 in the last month. This week’s results were a significant improvement on what everyone was expecting."
