Unemployment crashes down – soooooo there are no excuses not to lift welfare now
More stunning news from NZs economic bounce back thanks to the incredible leadership of Jacinda and Labour with their go hard and going early strategy!
Thanks to borders closed and no migrant worker exploitation, or international student exploitation or hyper tourism exploitation – the unemployment level has CRASHED to a mere 4.9%!
Shock fall in unemployment to 4.9%
Unemployment dropped back under 5 per cent in the December quarter, Statistics NZ says.
The shock drop in the seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate from 5.3 per cent to 4.9 per cent confounds even the most optimistic expectations of economists.
They had already been rapidly dialling back their expectations of how high unemployment might go this year, but still expected a modest increase in the jobless number during the final three months of 2020.
Soooooooooooo, now the unemployment rate has crashed, there are no excuses not to lift welfare payments. If the argument is too many lazy bums not working, well everyone is working.
Peer beneath the numbers and you sill see Women, Māori and Pacifica hurting the most. You’ll probably see a lot of people being moved to other welfare payments, you will see skyrocketing demand for food payments, you will see unprecedented need for food banks, you will see over crowding, motels used as social housing, and you will see many middle class and working class people refusing to seek help from the toxic WINZ altogether.
You’ve got your low unemployment numbers, now start doing something meaningful about poverty and inequality by doubling welfare payments.
What is the point of kindness is it doesn’t stop economic suffering?
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Any signs of wage growth or are the working poor are still invisible?
Wage growth was 1.6%
And, is being employed still counted as 1 hr of work per week and above?
To the best of my knowledge yes.
Well, that’s telling isn’t it. The phrase “Lies, damned lies, and statistics” comes to mind, used to describe the persuasive power of numbers, in particularly the use of statistics to support a precarious argument. Why does the MSM even bother to report on ‘unemployment’? Sure, the analysis is not theirs but isn’t there anyone, a journalist presumably, who will call the misleading dribble coming from the Beehive ?
They can be properly termed creative statistics.
Wage growth will only happen once the levels of benefits increase… Wages are dominated by supply and demand, which is part of the usual “Boom Bust” cycle that the tories economic policies are based on.. At the present time, wages don’t yet reflect the demand for workers, and won’t until unemployment drops under 4%.. This shrinks the pool of desperate people who would accept crap money just to have a job.. Hopefully this time around that stupidity can be avoided.. Hopefully… There are actually heaps of jobs going, but the ridiculous impediments to employment, like insisting on people having a drivers license, regardless of whether they need it for the job or not… I rode a pushbike to work when I was at the shipyards in WA.. I would no longer be able to get a job there now if I had no license and NZ has gone down the same self defeating path.. It is a deliberate ploy to make it harder for people to get work and kept the unemployment rate higher than it should have been, specifically to drive wages and conditions down… Yet another “gift” left us by the nats.. Let’s hope this government doesn’t just maintain the stupidity..
Exactly, Benefit Increases Now!–backdated to the 70 NGO “letter to Jacinda” before Xmas. If I was MSD Minister it would be backdated to 1991.
The HLFS has had blind spots since its inception that several TDB contributors have covered and pointed out for years. Nonetheless, the capitalist economists must be well pissed off with this result–and it further dents what remains of their credibility. But apart from part timers, those desperately needing more hours, women, Māori, and Pasifika, it is all good. Martyn is right in the sense that this Govt. will present the unemployment figures at face value and positive. So why not cough up Jacinda?
The constantly, officially, repressed shame of this country remains the “children of Roger’n’Ruth”. A perpetual underclass in South Auckland, Porirua, and the provinces, including forestry towns, was created by the 1984 and 1991 attacks on the NZ working class. Displaced workers were discarded rather than retrained through macro economic decisions well beyond their reach. Then, their meagre lifeline to existence was slashed, and they were demonised by Shipley’s “dob in a bludger” TV ads, hit with market rents and paid tertiary and trade training.
Time is running out for this Govt. to redeem itself in any meaningful way, they have 6 months tops to give some indication–but many won’t be waiting. Labour is going to eat humble pie in 2023 and Greens and Māori Party will be ascendent for many younger voters.
The only people who are surprised by these figures are the “experts” that in reality have no idea what’s happening on the ground out here in reality land… It took me less than 15 minutes to find at least thirty jobs I am qualified to do.. The only thing stopping me taking them up is the fact that I am having difficulty with getting a license that allows me to drive on my own.. I’ve had licences in other countries, but as I’ve spent most of my adult life travelling around the world playing the blues, my records have disappeared as a result of “upgrading” records and systems, both in Australia and here.. This has forced me to get a learners license. (I’m 60 yrs old) There are no provisions to be able to shorten the six month period before it becomes a restricted license… Yet another example of why we shouldn’t let national/colonial party governments play at governance… The cosest I got having anything done about it was having the member for Pukekohe trying to use me as bait to criticise the government.. How many people are in similar situations? I rode a pushbike to work in the shipyards in WA.. Here, i could live a 5 minute walk from a workshop and still not get a job because of my lack of a full license… How stupid is that? I don’t envy the mountain of work this government has got to do to bring some balance and common sense back into the industrial/ commercial environment in NZ.. Let’s hope they get on with it with alacrity..
The Blaireite will do nothing that the left expect from a Labour Govt with a FULL majority.
Very sad, JA looks to be just like the old boss, cruel, just nicer whilst doing it.
Very very sad for NZ and any democracy we ever had.
So is the $300M (? is that right?) per week the government spends on new deficits (via “free” borrowing) still necessary? Numbers that would make even John Key’s eyes water (tears of joy obviously, since govt deficit spending disproportionately makes the rich much richer).
Wow with all these positive stats, Jacinda can now afford to be 0.57% more kind.
You might well have coined a new phrase FtheT: cut and paste journalism
Fortress NZ under the leadership of Commander Arden seems to be be going well. I wouldn’t mind another month of Sundays if we level 4 again.
Might as well include parliament in these figures with the distinct absence of ambition. If only the rest of the unemployed could be on six figure benefits.