7 February 2018
Strong employment shows no need for law changes
With unemployment at its lowest in nine years, the job for the new Government must be to ensure that it doesn’t take
this progress for granted, National’s Employment spokesperson Paul Goldsmith says.
“The new Government inherited a very strong labour market and it’s encouraging to see that unemployment has continued to
fall. That’s a credit to the hard work of all our businesses and workers.
“The unemployment rate is now 4.5 per cent and the average full-time wage has increased 3.2 per cent over the last
twelve months, now $60,642 per year.
“This means more Kiwis are in jobs and getting ahead, which is a solid platform for New Zealand to keep building on.
“The key now is to ensure that Labour’s incoming changes to employment laws do not put this all at risk.
“Our flexible labour market encourages businesses of all sizes to grow their workforces and with unemployment at a
nine-year low, it’s difficult to see why Labour’s reforms are needed at all.
“It’s up to the Government to explain why it is making changes that will undermine the strong results we’ve seen today.”
ends