"According to newly released 2001 Census figures from Statistics New Zealand, the unemployment rate on Census night was 8.4%" says Lindsay Mitchell, Libertarianz spokesman for the deregulation of welfare.

"This is three percent higher than the reported official unemployment rate given in March 2001 of 5.4 percent, " a startled Mitchell continues. "So where does this leave the 5.3% figure Helen Clark was positively crowing about at the weekend Labour Congress?"

"What this enormous and damning discrepancy shows is that the Household Labour Force sample is grossly innaccurate. When the entire population of the General and Maori Electorates are counted the total labour force is 2,131,524 and the number of unemployed is 179,634. This gives an unemployment rate of 8.4%. The separate rates are 7.5 in the General Electorate Districts, and 15 in the Maori Electoral Districts."

"This is bad news for a Labour Government on the eve of a general election. One of their key claims to successful management of the country is that unemployment is low. In light of this new information how can we believe that? What are we to make of the erroneous estimates that the Household Labour Force Survey produces?"

"We await with interest the 'spin' that Statistics New Zealand and Steve Maharey try to put on this revealing Census information."

"It's enough to make you vote Libertarianz!"

ENDS

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