New Zealand’s unemployment rate is now 5.3%, the highest in 6 years. The latest Household Labour Force Survey shows 115,000 people out of work but still actively looking as of the end of March. Social development minister Paula Bennett says the Government had initially planned for about 60,000 people to be on the unemployment benefit by early next year, but that number has now been upgraded to 80,000. The number of people currently receiving the unemployment benefit has doubled in the past year and the number of sickness, invalid and domestic purposes beneficiaries have all increased as well, meaning one in nine working age (18-64) New Zealanders are now receiving a benefit of some sort. Council of Trade Unions Secretary Peter Conway said that the recent spate of redundancies and forecasts point to unemployment going higher over the next year.

Although these figures released today are lower than some expected it is important that everything is done to head off the rise in unemployment. This should include: direct investment in job-rich projects across infrastructure, home insulation and environmental work; more support from government procurement for the domestic economy, and; greater assistance for those laid off including training opportunities.

Max Abbott, Professor of Psychology and Public Health at AUT University, has raised the issue of the “mental and physical fallout” of rising unemployment needing attention;

Unemployment is about much more than obtaining an income. Paid employment provides a time structure, enforces activity, involves regular contact and shared experiences with other people, links people to wider goals and purposes and defines important aspects of personal status and identity.

Abbott also said that said it would make good sense to both expand targeted training programmes and lift the cap on places in tertiary education, especially in job-rich fields. AUT University turned away many hundreds of students this year because of a Tertiary Education Commission limit on student numbers.