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Bennett's job numbers don't add up - Ardern

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Labour: Govt's job numbers don't add up

3News NZ

Paula Bennett (file)

Paula Bennett (file)

Paula Bennett’s list of job vacancies doesn’t add up.

The Government has gone on the offensive over the worst unemployment rates for 13 years.

The Social Development Minister said yesterday there were plenty of job opportunities, claiming 300 vacancies at The Warehouse and 40 at Bunnings.

But The Warehouse told RadioLIVE it only has 30 jobs available and Labour MP Jacinda Ardern is questioning other numbers.

“I’ve been checking a few; Bunnigs for instance at the moment online is advertising – I think – three jobs,” she said. “A slight disconnect there from what the minister claims.”

Ms Ardern had previously accused Ms Bennett of “stooping to a new low” after she read out the job ads in Parliament.

Ms Bennett was dealing with Labour Party questions on youth unemployment when she said people could find jobs if they looked for them.

She said the Warehouse Group wanted 300 workers, Brightwater Engineers wanted 40, Mitre 10 was opening a new store and needed 50 and Bunnings Warehouse was looking for 40.

"It's tough out there but there are jobs... people need to be actively looking to be able to take up the opportunities, it's as simple as that," she said.

Ms Ardern, says the minister's response was "just plain nasty".

"To read out a list of supposed job vacancies - thus implying work is freely available if people are looking for it - is a pretty low blow," she said.

"The minister is responsible for more than 50,000 Kiwis on the unemployment benefit and implying they aren't looking hard enough is just insulting."

3 News/NZN

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Comments

3/12/2012 2:35:18 p.m.

JOYCE wrote:

I agree with Mal on this one. Statistics play wonderful tricks with the real employment facts, such as the fact that if you have a partner in full time work you get no benefits etc. I heard from a very reliable govt source that unofficially the unemployment is more like 15%! I know so many people employed for just a few hours a week and others who are holding their breath wondering if their company is going to pull the plug and relocate to China or India for the lower wages and higher profit margins. Sorry folks, we need to look at reining in the so called "global village" and begin looking after our own instead of sending all our work overseas where workers can earn as little as 50 cents an hour - and if I hear one more foreign, heavily accented voice from a call centre based in Mumbai or Manila rather than Auckland or Wellington, I will scream! Bring back restrictions! Bring back the "we" economy" instead of the "me" economy! The trickle down theory pushed by previous govts during the 80s and 90s was a starry eyed theory with no basis in reality where they assumed by pandering to businesses etc the profits would automatically trickle down to the benighted masses - anyone who knows human nature and human history knows that has never, ever worked!

17/11/2012 9:39:50 a.m.

Mal wrote:

@WONDERING. Add to that 300,000 the 170,000 who went to OZ. And thats getting closer to the numbers unemployed. If you work for 2 hours a week you are considered employed. So the figures are much higher that they say they are. Shame Shame Shame.

16/11/2012 12:07:55 p.m.

Dan wrote:

Mike's items can be backed up but only from a very Bill English staunch this-works-on-paper way and this is totally at odds with the reality of the situation.

16/11/2012 12:07:54 p.m.

Dan wrote:

Mike's items can be backed up but only from a very Bill English staunch this-works-on-paper way and this is totally at odds with the reality of the situation.

16/11/2012 10:07:25 a.m.

Mike wrote:

No govt in NZ in decades has done a great job.

We have had almost 40 years of BORROW/BORROW/BORROW which is on target to make NZ a Greece of the South Pacific.

Labour has policy to take us down that road faster with higher borrowing, printing money, high inflation, and lowering of real wages. Nobody from the oppostion is explaining how those things will help NZrs.

If farmers are earning so much, it will be simple for any unemployed to offer to work for 1/10th the wages of farmers. If offer to work for 1/10th what farmers get paid, they will have no trouble finding work. According to Labour, ALL farmers earn millions, so even 1/10th of that will be good income for ANY unemployed and the unemployed will be able to live like kings on such high incomes. Take the actual average farmer income in 2009 where they paid around $1500 in tax, 1/10th of that would see unemployed living like kings on around $20 a week! Any shortfall - just go to your local Labour member and demand the difference. Labour claims are pure bullshit. Any policy looked at in detail you find typically does the opposite of Labours claims, but their supporters are not interested in the detail, only the political headlines. Like Judith Tizzard paying 0% income tax as gov-gen under Labour because she was a buddy, and that was all part of thier making the rich pay more tax - NOT!

To dig us out of the mess we need to earn more thorugh exports. Our export growth during recession is not bad, amoung the best in the world currently. We also need to cut back our spending/borowing even if its take a small drop in standard of living to balance our books. We need to up our productivity as through better productivity we can avoid lowering our standard of living. If we manage to get our books balanced, we need to keep them there and borrowing 39/40 years is not balancing them.

15/11/2012 4:24:47 p.m.

John Gibson wrote:

Mike is the Allion of the past,full of pi-- and dust,OOPS I should not say that?as he is a payed supporter for the Nat party.

15/11/2012 11:10:49 a.m.

Kathy wrote:

@Mike as a business person I can tell you your figures still dont stack up, Nothing National has done has contributed to these figures what you are doing is misrepresenting supply and demand over the periods and attributing the cause as government which is incorrect. The lie is the fact that you attribute those trends to either National or Labour but forget world demand is the only thing that plays a part in those figures. Google all you like Mike, it still doesnt make it truth, misrepresentation of facts is still misrepresentation.

15/11/2012 9:08:09 a.m.

Vicki B wrote:

Brightwater is a tiny town near Nelson, I highly doubt that they want 40 workers, that just seems wrong. I am job seeking at the moment and I can tell you now when I phoned a recruiting agent about helping me find employment in my field, they said they had nothing at all available, which I just couldn't believe! Nothing! The government's policies have directly effected my field of work and at 33 I now have to look a getting another Batchelor perhaps, or post graduate qualifications, and get in debt. I had such hope growing up in this country and that is why I stayed here and worked as a professional. I should have left and gone overseas long ago.....if only I had known!

15/11/2012 12:14:40 a.m.

Mike wrote:

I pick items Kathy that can be backed up. The Export figures come from official statisics NZ info that anyone can google and confirm. Of course this puts it outside the abilities of the average opposition supporter. The party faithful put their trust in beliefs and not finding info for themselves. So when Labour claims revenue=profit, they believe it! When Labour claims farmers earning low incomes so low they only pay $1500 in tax are really all earning millions, the party faithful blindly believe out of faith and chose not to discover if it was even true.

The reason why nobody argues my stats is because I can google supporting stats better than the oppositon faithful, hence they resort to personal attacks vs debate policy or stats. Many of the stats are stats from when Labour was in power, ie Labour put the figures together! So was Labour lying when they put those figures together?

Take job vacancies for the 12 months period to October - up 15%, with 14.2% more skilled vacancies. It may not be popular amoung the home-alone moaners, but it tends to mean someone willing to work and tries hard enough can find work easier than a year ago.

October skilled vacancies were up 5.6% from September with online vacncies up 4.7%.

It doesn't make it easy, but if someone is prepared to work and tries hard enough one can find work. If sit home alone waiting for a job to fall from the sky, then your not going to find work.

There is a world recession on out there, or do the blind oppostion supporters not believe that either?

Balance of payments, we haven't been in surplus since 1973! Thats only like 40 years of deficits! NZ has been living outside its means for like the last 40 years.

14/11/2012 6:24:29 p.m.

Kathy wrote:

Like National Mike just makes things up, infact much of what he says are just plain lies. Is that the best the right has to offer us now? misinformation and bollucks?.