Fri, 06 Nov 2009 5:55a.m.
Paula Bennett (file pic)
Unemployment will get worse before it gets better, but Government programmes are helping take on the dole queue, Social Development Minister Paula Bennett said today.
The Statistics Department's household labour survey released yesterday showed unemployment rose to a nine-year high 6.5 percent in the September quarter, from 6 percent in the previous three months.
The number of unemployed reached its highest level in 15 years, rising 12,000 or 9 percent during the September quarter to reach 150,000.
Ms Bennett said the Government was picking unemployment to peak at around 7 percent next year and there would be a lot of students looking for work soon.
"We are very aware that we have got thousands of students this summer that need to earn some money so they can go back next year," she said.
"That is going to be putting a real push on our labour market, so we are going to be seeing initiatives around that."
Announcements about this would be made within the next two weeks.
However, as the number of those who were seeking work continued to rise, those actually on the unemployment benefit shrunk slightly.
In recent weeks there had been a drop in the number of people requiring an unemployment benefit -- in September there were 60,600, and 59,955 in October.
Ms Bennett said staffing boosts at Work and Income had helped people find work.
Government measures to get youth into further training or work had restrained numbers on the youth benefit, she said, citing figures of 19,845 on the youth benefit in September and 19,461 in October.
There had been a small drop in the number of benefit applications, but people were getting off the benefit more quickly.
Around 40 percent of those applying for benefits did not get one, either because they did not qualify or they took jobs or training.
A large number of people who were classed as unemployed would not be seeking or getting the dole because they did not apply or did not qualify.
There had been a 9.5 percent increase in those on the DPB over the last year, which was an indication that many sole parents were not able to find work that matched their child care duties.
It was difficult to know how many of those who were unemployed would move on to the dole in the coming months but Ms Bennett believed 80,000 would be the upper level of unemployment benefit numbers.
NZPA
