CTU Media Release
6 September 2012
Worsening forecasts don’t help those out of work
New Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment forecasts out today are that New Zealand’s jobless rate won’t fall
below 6 percent before 2014. CTU Economist Bill Rosenberg says “these contrast strongly with forecasts used by the
Government in the Budget where Treasury was forecasting 5.7% unemployment in March 2013 and 5.2% in March 2014. MoBIE is
forecasting a much higher 6.2% for 2013 and 5.9% for 2014.”
“Treasury forecasts of falling unemployment have already been made redundant by the current rate of 6.8 percent.
Forecasts of lower unemployment, job creation and economic growth are nothing new, and won’t happen without government
actions to help bring them about. MoBIE’s new forecasts show a lack of belief that current policies are improving the
unemployment situation.”
There are now over 160,000 New Zealanders unemployed, these figures continue to be alarmingly high, and will remain too
high even if this forecast proves correct. We need the government to have a plan to generate jobs-led growth for our
economy.
“We need the government to focus on job creation, and support New Zealand jobs through government procurement and
investment. We need to boost training for workers to prepare for the Christchurch rebuild, but not rely solely on this
to create jobs. We should build trains in New Zealand, retain good Government jobs, increase infrastructure projects,
reinstate tertiary spending cuts and stop hoping the market will fix this.”
ENDS