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Summarised by Centrist
Talk of labour-market recovery is doing little for young New Zealanders stuck in what one source described as the “job wars”, with graduates increasingly finding that a degree is no longer a clear path into stable work.
According to RNZ’s ‘The Detail’, graduates are “struggling to secure entry-level work thanks to a tough labour market”. Unemployment for 15 to 24-year-olds is now 16.5 percent, “three times higher than the overall unemployment rate”.
The degree-to-career bargain is looking more fragile than many students were led to expect. Justin Tuburan, who recently graduated from AUT with a Bachelor of Communications, said he is still unable to find work in his field and is instead relying on casual security work to get by. “I don’t know really what I am doing with my life,” he said.
Seek senior economist Dr Blair Chapman said “the labour market is picking up, job ad growth is picking up”, but also admitted “it can take time for that to flow to graduates”. Jobseeker support has risen by 5700 to 223,500 since September, suggesting that any recovery is at best uneven and delayed.
University of Canterbury deputy vice-chancellor Catherine Moran said a degree is about more than job training, arguing that students gain “deeper and deeper understanding of content”.
