171 000 Unemployed Kiws is a National Party failure
Unemployment rate highest in more than a decade – labour market in crisis
Today’s unemployment rate of 5.6 percent is the highest rate in more than a decade and shows a labour market clearly in crisis says Sandra Grey, President of the NZ Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi.
“The data shows that we had 171,000 people unemployed in the June quarter, and the last time the unemployment rate was this high was September 2015. The number of people unemployed for more than six months was 69,300 – 40 percent of all those unemployed. This is an economy in the grip of an employment disaster, and the Government needs to get a grip.
“Just about every indicator that could get worse, is now worse. Inflation is at 4.1 percent, but 74 percent of workers got a pay rise less than 3 percent, and 44 percent of workers saw no pay rise at all. A full-time worker on the average wage is now worse off in real terms from last year. Workers in both the public and private sectors are worse off than they were a year ago. When there are more workers chasing fewer jobs, workers lose the power to bargain. That is not an accident of the market – it is the predictable result of choices this Government has made.
“The problem of youth unemployment continues. According to StatsNZ there was a 19.5 percent increase in the number of unemployed 15-24 year olds this year. Māori and Pacific Peoples unemployment rates are still double the rate of the general population. Altogether, there were 4.8m fewer hours worked in the economy last year than was the case in December 2023.
“There are now 440,000 people underutilised in New Zealand, which is up 32,000 in just three months. This is the broader measure of labour market capacity and tells us that the headline rate of unemployment is hiding the true scale of worklessness.
“This Government asked for three years to fix the economy. Yet here we are with the unemployment rate at decade long highs, inflation at 4.1 percent, wages going backwards in real terms, and thousands more people on Jobseeker Support. Is this what being ‘back on track’ looks like?
“We do not have to accept this. Aotearoa can choose a government that lifts wages instead of suppressing them, that invests in the jobs of the future instead of cutting them, and that treats full employment as something worth working for. That choice is on the ballot on 7 November.”
NZCTU
You can not pretend the damage this Government have inflicted upon the Economy would create anything other than soaring unemployment.
This Government have borrowed more while hollowing out public services.
They believe they can cut the State back and the market will step in and do it cheaper.
They destroyed Labour’s infrastructure pipeline and then seemed surprised after it imploded.
All National have done is service their donors interests over everyone else.
171 000 Unemployed Kiwis is a National Party failure.
All National, ACT and NZF can do now is play to our petty bigotries with culture war revenge fantasies in the hope you won’t notice their economic vandalism.
How much must you hate Jacinda, da Māoris, da Trans and da vaccines for this to be acceptable?
Independent Media is more important than ever, especially in the lead up to the Election. TDB is the largest Left Wing Blog in NZ and we have been operating for 13 years now. We get zero funding g from NZ on Air and we don’t have no rich backers. If you can donate please do so here or directly into our account – 12-3065-0133561-56
Don’t vote It only encourages them.
The latest unemployment figures don’t just expose the failure of the government’s austerity agenda — they expose the bankruptcy of an entire political class still clinging to a model that has already immiserated a generation. An 11-year high jobless rate of 5.6 percent, 171,000 people out of work, nearly 100,000 young people unable to find employment, and more than 69,000 stuck in long-term unemployment: these are not abstract numbers. They are the human consequences of a government that insists debt is ‘out of control’ — a claim contradicted by every serious economic analysis — and that slashing public spending is the only responsible path forward. The result is predictable: rising unemployment, collapsing job security, and a labour market that is failing on every measure.
Under conditions like these, one would reasonably expect the opposition parties to be surging. Yet Labour clings only to a marginal lead over National, and the Greens are stuck in the low-teens, struggling even to match their last election result. The problem is not that voters are apathetic — it’s that Labour offers no alternative to the very neoliberal framework that has driven the country into its current economic mire. Labour’s message amounts to little more than ‘we’ll manage the same system slightly better,’ a pitch that inspires precisely no one.
https://nzagainstthecurrent.blogspot.com/2026/08/dont-vote-it-only-encourages-them.html
Dont forget the 200k that have left nz that would be on the unemployed list .Just another measure of the Growth mantra of Luxon and willis .
The ag sector is going well but is only about 15% of our total economy .The rest of the economy has been tanked by Willis shutting all construction down because it will cost money .Now we have 100k trades people either unemployed ,under employed or have left the country .Thats a lot of money taken out of the spending economy .
Australians come to buy race horses at our sales because our dollar is worth bugger all so they can buy our best at a 15% discount on what they would pay at their own sales .Ag is going well for the same reason that being the dollar is worth fuck all so other countries are in fact getting cheap food from NZ .Try buying a new tractor when we now have to use twice as many NZ dollars compared to a few years ago .Then the so called record payouts for milk and meat soon look like shit .We all rant about inflation ,but forget that the low dollar is contributing to the problem because imports are 15% dearer than a year ago because the dollar has devalued .
Luxon spouts on about him turning Unilever into a kick arse world wide company in his time there as a soap salesman .I am 73 and unilever was around long before I was born and was kicking arse long before Luxon was born .Then he fucked Air NZ in his time and had to be proped up by the major share holders .He wasted millions in a failed takeover of Virgin ,then bought a heap of new planes that were grounded for years be cause the engines were faulty ,no doubt to cut costs ,and then he made engineering staff redundant to claw back a few dollars to try to make people think he was doing a good job .
The man has been a parasite for years before coming home because he is really not that good .
If he was as good as he says he would now be the global head of unilever or some other giant corporation not a failed leader of a small country at the bottom of the world which he is destroying more very day .
Let’s hear Trevor say what a wonderful job National are doing and it’s all the previous governments fault. Utter rubbish of course. This National party and Coalition Government is a disgrace. The last government was a disappointment but this lot take the cake ( clearly something the speaker is well versed in).
Of course 171,000 unemployed Kiwis is a National Party failure and the highest in more than a decade! Previously the record was 2015 under National’s John Key govt! Also take into account that 74% of workers got a pay rise less than 3% and 44% of workers saw no pay rise at all! Need we say more? If Luxon doesn’t think there is anything crooked with these stats, then he is absolutely in the wrong job, which of course we already all know he is! So he and his cohorts are “sorted”, bully for them, but he needs to start considering those who were not born with a silver spoon in their mouths and who have been held back with lower and lower wages to become the ill-treated ‘under-dogs’ of our society. How horrible is that, especially from someone who purports to be a Christian? What next will he come out with – ‘let them eat cake’ which describes a leader who is out of touch! https://www.google.com/search?q=let+them+eat+cake Luxon can’t ever admit he is wrong and never stops conning the voters and himself! He is such a huge embarrassment!
” All National have done is service their donors interests over everyone else ”
Yes and maintaining the neoliberal free market that encourages the environment for unregulated capitalism that most political parties in the current parliament support.
That’s why the failure is the responsibility of the two main parties and their support parties who will continue to enforce polices that harm , marginalize and remove any authority from many of our whanau.
All that matters is despite record levels of poverty , misery and starvation for many of our elderly is that the current economic framework will remain in place.
The greatest insult is the childish , arrogant , entitled refusal to be in any way honestly emphatic is what drives most of our current political parties , their political representatives and their own personal gain at the expense of the people they claim to represent like the current NZLP who claim to be the party of Savage but the reality is they are a million miles away from any pretense of understanding or giving a shit of the many who are subjugated by the very economic system that Hipkins , Edmonds , Helen White in Mt Albert , Kiren Mc Naulty , and not forgetting Sepoluni who claims to stand for Pacifica and their suffering as a result of the unregulated capitalist system she supports because she is removed from her constituency thanks to her huge salary , perks and indifference to the people she claims in her manifesto should be protected.
None of these people are in any way representatives of our marginalized communities and to claim otherwise is fraudulent and corrupt.
According to extensive analytical assessment, Nicola Willis blames this on young people “twiddling their thumbs and playing too much nintendo.“
Immigration New Zealand has approved more than 202,000 Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) applications since the primary temporary work visa scheme opened in July 2022…
The slave masters prefer compliant immigrants over fussy locals. And they still wonder why Trump imposed a tariff for slave labor.