Media Release: FIRST Union
Thursday November 3, 2011

Unemployment figures a wakeup call

Today’s reported increase in unemployment should be a wakeup call for the government, FIRST Union General Secretary Robert Reid said.

Unemployment has risen by 3,000 to 157,000 people, or 6.6 percent.

“While economists and the government may have been surprised by these figures, FIRST Union has been continually pointing out the slowdown in the economy,” Robert Reid said.

“This slowdown has brought us redundancies in the wood and textile industries that we cover and has seen queues of more than 2,000 workers looking for 200-300 jobs every time a new supermarket opens.

“The National Party policy on welfare yesterday will do nothing to address this trend,” Robert Reid said.

“Political party policies on unemployment must be policies that expand the economy and create jobs not the polices of the National Party that contract the economy, kill jobs and blame unemployed workers for being unemployed..

“What we need is specific stimulus measures to ensure that job growth occurs. The National Party has shown they are not up to the job,” Robert Reid said.

Ends.

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