Rt Hon Winston Peters
New Zealand First Leader

28 August 2012

True Unemployment Rate Hidden By Successive Governments

New Zealand First is calling on the Government to scrap the Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS) as the official measure of employment.

Data released this week by Roy Morgan suggests a total of 228,000 New Zealanders, 9.1 per cent of the workforce, were unemployed in the June quarter.

The official figure quoted by the Department of Labour is 6.8 per cent, a discrepancy of 66,000.

Rt Hon Winston Peters says successive governments have run with flawed HLFS findings so they can hide just how bad things are in the economy.

“The Roy Morgan poll paints a much more serious unemployment situation than the Government’s propaganda would have us believe.

“Not only does the poll suggest that unemployment is at 9.1 per cent, but it also suggests that a further 9.6 per cent of the workforce are under-employed.

“That is a sad indictment on National’s economic direction which is bringing the country to its knees,” says Mr. Peters.

ENDS

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