Paul Goldsmith - Finance

6 November 2019

Rising unemployment figures released today show job growth is stalling under Labour's economic mismanagement, National’s Finance spokesperson Paul Goldsmith says.

"National's job boom is a distant memory following the release of the latest Household Labour Force Survey from Statistics New Zealand.

"Low business confidence is now flowing through into a weakening labour market.

"In the last two years of the National Government, new jobs were created at a hectic pace of 10,000 per month. Under the first two years of this Labour Government, it's only 10,000 per quarter.

"Such a massive slowdown in hiring by companies is bad news for students looking to enter the labour market as well as families looking to get ahead by moving into a more rewarding job.

"As a result of slowing job growth, the unemployment rate also rose to 4.2 per cent.

"It's a real warning sign that companies just cannot afford to hire new workers like they used to.

"This Government's policies are hurting key sectors of our economy, even when New Zealand's international terms of trade are near record highs.

"This is limiting how quickly companies can expand or export their products and services to the world.

"New Zealanders are paying the price for Labour lacking any sort of plan for growth. They cannot afford this Government."

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