ZB ZB
Live now
Start time
Playing for
End time
Listen live
Listen to NAME OF STATION
Up next
Listen live on
ZB

Mike's Minute: What's going on with our labour market?

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Mon, 12 Jul 2021, 3:32PM

Mike's Minute: What's going on with our labour market?

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Mon, 12 Jul 2021, 3:32PM

Simple question for you, can you really be called job ready if you haven't had a job for a decade?

The most astonishing figures are out on how bad our job market is.

At one end, every industry and operator going is finding getting talent hard work. On the other hand, we have 200,000 people allegedly job ready being paid for by those who do have work.

We have job advertisements at record levels and yet these 200,000 seemingly, astonishingly, can't find one.

Economists reckon we are at peak employment. That doesn't mean everyone literally has work, there will always be maybe three percent unemployment through a mix of geography, lack of skills, or lack of desire.

But something isn't right here when 200,000 are set, go in a market flooded with job ads, and the two can't be connected.

Back to the 10 years, the number of people who haven't been in work for a decade has doubled under this government.

You can't hide from that. You can't argue your economy is in good shape when you have seen the people at the very bottom of it fail to participate for 10 years. Obviously, this government hasn’t been in power for 10 years, but they carry the can for the bit that’s doubled. That's on their watch.

The number of people who are work ready has gone up by nearly 50,000. It's an increase of more than 25,000 for two consecutive years. There are over 5000 out of work for a decade or longer.

How is that possible? And is it not absurd to call them work ready? Jobseeker is a payment made to people who are "work ready." You can't be work ready, if you haven't had work for more than 10 years.

It is surely further evidence that the whole scam they're running that you simply employ a local by paying them more was never going to work.

Some people clearly aren't capable of work so cut your losses and don’t pretend they are. Get people who are ready. Some of them will be here, but many clearly aren't, they're offshore and need to get here stat.

If this government had a reputation for redistribution for merely writing cheques to try and make problems go away. The bill for emergency housing and the stats for the long term unemployed are proof their view of the world and the system they are operating does not work.

 

Take your Radio, Podcasts and Music with you