The BFD | Welfare Is Better Than Work

The NZ Herald reports there are more than 80,000 job listings for the quarter ending June 30, 2021 according to data from TradeMe. Labour shortages across the country have led to fierce competition among employers for staff. TradeMe Jobs Director Matt Tolich described it as a job hunters’ market, with employers paying more to attract staff from their competitors. He says in Q2 we saw the largest annual percentage increase in average pay than we’ve seen in over ten years. “When compared to the same quarter last year, the average pay increased by 3 per cent to $64,939.”

Matt says it really is the perfect storm and job seekers are well and truly in the driver’s seat. It’s a great time to be looking for a new role. If that is the case there are some questions to be asked. The first is why are so many on either the unemployment benefit or the job seekers’ benefit if there are this number of jobs available? The second is why, as at the end of May, did we have 64,000 people who had been on the job seekers’ benefit for over a year? If you look at their obligations while on the benefit and they observe them all then one can only conclude either that they are basically unemployable or the government likes having them there.

According to the Ministry of Social Development, if you are available for full-time work you have to:

be available for and take reasonable steps to get a job
take any offer of suitable full-time, part-time or temporary work, or work that is seasonal or subsidised
attend and take part in any suitable job interviews we ask you to
take and pass any drug test potential employers or training providers require (that could be a problem)
attend and take part in interviews with us as required
work with us how you’ll find a suitable job
take part in work related activities or programmes such as a work assessment, a programme or seminar to increase particular skills or enhance motivation where we ask you to
attend and take part in any other activity we require you to (including rehabilitation but not medical treatment, voluntary work or activity in the community).

If all these criteria are being met by every job seeker recipient of our money, why were, a few months ago, over 100,000 so-called job-ready people receiving it? Something is seriously amiss. Perhaps it is not being administered properly, and, like the vaccine rollout, no accurate figures are kept of who is doing what and there’s precious little follow-up. No figures, no accountability: a hallmark of this regime.

In America, businesses are saying thank God for teenagers. They are picking up jobs that adults are not prepared to do. They are working in restaurants, amusement parks and retail shops. One hospitality worker here says the problem is the amount workers are paid. I personally don’t think that is the whole or sole reason. There has been an increase in the minimum wage to $20 per hour but there has also been an increase in the amount paid to the unemployed. I heard recently of a young single man who was offered a job but didn’t turn up on day two because the work was too hard and he could get almost as much on the benefit.

Therein lies the real problem. Welfare under this government is so good the incentive to get a job has been removed.

It appears that under this government you don’t have to work. As far as I can see very little meaningful effort is made to get people into a job. Like everything else with this government, it’s in the too-hard basket. Not only are they not insisting locals get work, they are preventing immigrants who want the jobs from entering the country. It’s an insane situation, but if there’s one thing this government is good at it’s insanity.

We are supposed to have competent people running the country, Instead, we have clowns.