Job Seekers: Reflect Need For ‘Real’ Employment

Keen supermarket job seekers reinforces opportunity to do more to boost ‘real’ employment

The spectacular number of job seekers that are lining up to be considered for 150 roles in a new supermarket in Manukau reflects a workforce crying out for opportunities to be employed.

Michael Barnett, Auckland Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive says “A lot is being done to support people into employment but we must do more.”

The Auckland Chamber of Commerce in partnerships with Work and Income, for the last 8 years has provided job readiness training and promotes job seekers to their network of employers. In that time, over 4000 people have been placed into jobs through the Chamber services.

The Chamber’s CadetMax programme supports young people 16-18 years old from Counties Manukau into cadetship and apprenticeship employment. By providing screening, work preparation and a strong advocate to the business community, over 50 at-risk youth found jobs in 2009. “However, the recession has had a disproportionate effect on unskilled young labour; they are the least likely to be employed when compared with seekers who have more experience,” notes Mr Barnett.

JobPlus delivered free training seminars on CV writing, job search strategy and interview skills to over 200 people in the last half of 2009 to those highly skilled and recently made redundant job seekers.

Information sharing is also assisting people back into work, said Barnett. “We have encouraged businesses to advise us of potential roles becoming available and we will work with Work and Income to match those roles with the database of people we have who are seeking employment.

Mr Barnett called for more work to be done to assist seekers like those who queued for hours without success. They could form a group whose skills and aspirations could be logged, assessed and linked to the many employment opportunities that are never advertised, he suggested.

“There must be the potential for those who failed Countdowns opportunities today and yesterday to be approached and have their skills assessed to see what we can do to lift their capability and get them into work,” concluded Mr Barnett.

ENDS

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