Social Services and Employment Minister Steve Maharey today released the Government's employment document – Opportunity,
Capacity, Participation: Government Employment Strategy 2000.
The release of the publication follows the announcement last week of an official unemployment rate of 5.9% - the lowest
in twelve years. A new monitoring regime to assess performance against the strategy at two levels has been agreed by the
Cabinet:
the employment outcomes being achieved will be reported by 30 September each year at the beginning of the budget
round, and
progress on and results emerging from Government actions and initiatives to influence those outcomes will be reported
as at 31 December and 30 June each year.
The new monitoring regime is designed to give greater prominence to employment strategy issues that come before Cabinet.
In future major policy proposals that impact on the employment strategy will include a clear assessment for Cabinet of
their expected impact on progress with the strategy.
"While the Government welcomed unemployment numbers dropping to a 12-year low last week, we know that they give us no
room for complacency. Historically good performance is not good enough – there are still far too many New Zealanders who
want to be in work but aren't able to get jobs.
"The Government has put job-rich growth back at the centre of public policy – growing an inclusive, innovative economy
for the benefit of all is amongst our key goals. The Employment Strategy document sets out the framework within which
the Government will seek to grow jobs.
"The strategy is about all the macro and micro-economic policies which impact on employment. The employment impact of
new policy decisions and programme implementation is now explicitly part of this Government's policy decision making
process," Steve Maharey said.
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