If this is economic growth where is the benefit to workers?

· Joblessness has increased by 25,200 to 262,500 in last 3 months
· Young people & women over represented
· Government not doing enough to create high quality jobs

“Unemployment should be decreasing after several years of growth in the economy,” says Bill Rosenberg, CTU Economist. “The Government must be more focused on creating good jobs with fair pay. Workers are not getting the pay increases they deserve and once again falling behind productivity growth. Workers are not getting a fair share of the benefits of economic growth.”

“Unemployment rose to 148,000 in the last three months. The unemployment rate is now 5.9 percent, barely below Australia’s which is 6.0 percent. That is 10,000 more people out of work than a year ago, and the number of people who are jobless rose by 25,200 to 262,500. Women are particularly missing out: their unemployment rate rose to 6.7 percent or 80,000 people. Unemployment in Canterbury is higher than it was a year ago. The Quarterly Employment Survey shows the number of jobs falling 0.9 percent in seasonally adjusted terms in the June quarter.”

More young people than a year ago (11.5 percent) are not employed, in education, or training.

“Employment did not keep up with the rising population. While the employment rate is still high, the continuing strong net immigration may be crowding out people leaving education or out of work, who may be finding it even harder to find jobs than the statistics show. Strongest employment growth was in the 20 to 34 year old age group in which there is strong net immigration. Along with increasing pressure on beneficiaries to find work, high net immigration is also holding down wage rises.” Rosenberg said.

The average hourly wage rose a modest 2.8 percent in the year, with the gender pay gap growing from 12.9 percent to 13.5 percent.

ENDS

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