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."
