Unemployment Drops? Yeah Right!

"The news that unemployment has dropped yet again should be met with the cynicism it deserves," claims Lindsay Mitchell, petitioner for a Parliamentary review of the DPB.

Mitchell explains why. "Most people do not know that being 'unemployed' is not the same as being 'jobless'. The jobless, as measured by Statistics NZ, are those without a job and wanting a job but are not actively seeking work. Their reasons for not actively seeking work may include discouragement through a lack of skills or being the wrong age. They may live in areas where there are no jobs. In March 2002 the official rate of jobless in NZ was 9.2% or one in eleven people. Sadly, it was rising."

"If we were to add to this figure another group of people who need work but aren't necessarily looking, I refer of course to those parents on the domestic purposes benefit, the rate of jobless would climb to an astonishing 14%," Mitchell says.

"I lost count of the number of times that Helen Clark and Jim Anderton boasted about low unemployment during the election campaign. They may have succeeded in securing votes but their continued deception does the country a disservice."

Lindsay Mitchell
Petitioner for a Parliamentary review of the DPB

ph/fx 04 562 7944
e-mail dandl.mitchell@clear.net.nz

© Scoop Media