-
Related
The Government faced accusations on Thursday that it was failing to protect jobs, as ministers gave assurances everything possible was being done to keep unemployment down.
Official figures released Thursday showed unemployment at 5% in the three months to March, up from 4.7% in the previous quarter.
Labour's finance spokesman, David Cunliffe, raised the statistics in Parliament when he questioned Finance Minister Bill English.
"What does he say to the 35,700 more New Zealanders who have either lost their jobs or can't find work in the last quarter, or the more than 55,000 others that the NZIER (NZ Institute for Economic Research) predicts will be thrown on the scrapheap?" he asked.
English replied "What I would say to them is the most important thing we can do is take the steps that are going to build the confidence for business to invest and actually create new jobs.
"I would also tell them that the Government has been borrowing money and injecting it into the economy to protect all of us from the sharpest edges of recession."
Prime Minister John Key told reporters the Government was going to work as hard as it could to keep people in work.
"The trend is still in the wrong direction, it's going up, but I think the good news part of the story is that we have a considerably lower unemployment rate than Australia at 5.7% or the United States at 8.5%."
In response to the increase in unemployment, Social Development Minister Paula Bennett said the upward trend was hitting young people particularly hard.
"That's worrying, and it's a priority for the Government."
Labour's Social Development spokeswoman, Annette King, said the Government should relax the criteria for special assistance.
"The demand on foodbanks has grown significantly ... the Government has been prepared to help medium and large businesses and to prop up the banks, now it should turn its attention to struggling families."
Meanwhile, the Council of Trade Unions said that although unemployment was less than had been forecast, there were worrying trends in the figures.
Youth unemployment was 19.6% and for those aged 20 to 24 it was 12%.
"The recent spate of redundancies and forecasts point to unemployment going higher over the next year," said CTU economist Peter Conway.
Labour's Pacific affairs spokeswoman Winnie Laban said the unemployment rate for Pacific islanders had jumped from 8.7% to 13.1%.
"Quick action and a real plan are now needed to prevent even more Pacific islanders from losing their jobs ... National is not doing enough to protect them."
