Government failing workers; young, women, Māori & Pasifika

Unions believe the Government must to do more to help young workers in to jobs, education or training. Statistics New Zealand has today released figures which show that in the last year the number of 20-24 year olds not working or in education or training has increased by 3,000 people.

“While the fall in unemployment and increase in wages in today’s labour statistics are welcome, they show many people still missing out. Unemployment for women is still at 6.3 percent compared to the 5.4 percent for the whole labour force and 4.6 percent for men. Māori unemployment has not fallen compared to September 2013, and is still at 12.2 percent, and while Pacific people’s unemployment has fallen it is still high at 11.7 percent.” CTU Economist, Bill Rosenberg said. “Almost half of the increase in employment is from construction and in Canterbury. Just three industries and three regions account for 90 percent of the employment growth.”

“There are still 228,000 people jobless, including 134,000 people unemployed, and there are 92,000 part-timers who want more work.” Rosenberg said.

Despite its relatively high economic growth rates compared to the rest of the OECD, New Zealand is still 9th in unemployment. Rosenberg says “we could do a lot better if there was a greater focus on jobs”.

“43 percent of worker missed out on a pay rise in the previous year. The growing gap between public sector and private sector wage increases will lead to mounting problems for the government as employer. With increases in the average wage over the year only 1.0 percent for the public sector compared to 2.9 percent for the private sector, and a similar gap shown by the Labour Cost Index (1.0 percent compared to 1.9 percent), the public sector will find it more and more difficult to recruit and retain staff, and existing staff will become increasingly insistent in their calls for wage rises that reflect the economic growth and increased demands on them. The gender pay gap for the average hourly wage remains at 12.9 percent – the same as in the last quarter.” Rosenberg said.

ENDS

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