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The government is crowing about the drop in the number of people on the Jobseeker benefit, and, to be fair, it is the biggest drop since records began in 1996. With staff shortages everywhere though, I would be surprised if this were not the case; I cannot think of a single industry that is not crying out for skilled workers. So that makes sense, right? And, as the government of the day, they can, of course, take credit for the drop, even though it is more by accident than design. 21,300 fewer people on benefits is a number to be proud of… and let’s be honest, the country really needs the tax revenue.
But scratch a little deeper and things are not quite so clear cut. Yes, we have a drop in the jobless numbers, but overall, since this government came into power, there are now many more people on some form of unemployment benefit than before they took office.
Currently, 368,172 Kiwis are the recipient of a main benefit, 11.7 per cent of the working-age population, whether it be Jobseeker Support, Sole Parent Support or Supported Living.
When Labour took office, there were 289,788 on a main benefit, or 9.7 per cent of the working-age population. The bulk of today’s beneficiaries are on Jobseeker Support, which has rocketed from 123,042 four years ago, to 187,989 today. That’s a 53 per cent increase. As a proportion of the working-age population, it has leapt from 4.1 per cent to 6.0 per cent.
But our official unemployment rate is currently a very low 3.4%… so how can this be right?
This indicator concluded that 98,000 Kiwis are officially classified as unemployed. They are not deemed as unemployed if they are not actively seeking employment.
Moreover, even if you are working just one hour a week, while drawing Jobseeker Support, you won’t be counted as officially unemployed. It’s an abject nonsense. And it explains why our “official” unemployment rate of 3.4 per cent bears no correlation to the billowing number of New Zealanders parked up on Jobseeker Support and dependent on the state, at 6.0 per cent.
So, the unemployment figure is actually much higher than 3.4%… but if you are not actively seeking work, you are not classed as unemployed. Surely our statistics compilers are better than that? There must be better ways of seeking out who actively wants to work, and who does not?
It’s a similar story in the Canterbury region, but even bleaker. The number of Cantabrians subsisting on Jobseeker Support has shot up from 10,842 in December 2017 to 19,077 four years later. That’s a 76 per cent increase.
And yet the unemployment rate is only 3.4%?
The government wants to take the maximum credit for this, of course, even if it is, as we can see, a mere fudging of the numbers.
Sepuloni talks a big game about the perils of long-term dependency. “We know that the longer you are on a benefit the harder it is finding employment, but by focusing on this group we are starting to make inroads.”
Are they really? The number of recipients of Jobseeker Support who had drawn that benefit for over 12 months totalled 69,087 four years ago. That’s since rocketed by 69 per cent to 116,634.
Once again in Canterbury, the deterioration in long-term dependency numbers is even more pronounced, with a more than 100 per cent increase in Jobseeker Support recipients drawing the benefit for longer than a year, from 5658 to 11,400, over the past four years.
So in spite of Carmel Sepuloni crowing from rooftops about this particular piece of success for the government, it seems that welfare dependency has mushroomed under this government, and we are not alone.
Like New Zealand, Australia’s “official” unemployment rate has cratered, yet more than 200,000 Australians who took up welfare in the first round of Covid-19 lockdowns nearly two years ago remain reliant on state support.
Stuff
So some of this is due to people who went onto benefits at the start of the pandemic and never came off. But how does that translate into 3.4% unemployment?
In every skill sector in the economy, including in the Canterbury region, skills shortages are putting all businesses under pressure. Don’t forget the staff that were laid off due to vaccine mandates, although they are probably not included in the unemployment figures yet. You really do have to wonder at the madness of a government that forces people out of their jobs because of an unwillingness to get vaccinated, when this problem could so easily have been solved by regular testing of unvaccinated staff.
We saw last year when fruit was rotting on the ground due to a lack of seasonal workers that locals would just not do the work. Growers increased their pay rates and offered accommodation but nothing would get the locals to take up the offer.
There is only one conclusion that is possible here, and that is that too many people are quite happy on the dole. Our benefit system is just too generous for people to be tempted to come off it by going and working for a living.
And, to cover up their usual incompetence, the government just fudges the unemployment numbers. Everyone who is in receipt of any form of Jobseeker benefit should be included in the unemployment figures. Instead, the government falsifies the figures and pats itself on the back for its success in bringing unemployment down. The duplicity here is breathtaking.
