Worsening forecasts don’t help those out of work

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

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