Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says “the point of a target is an outcome to aim for”.
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The government is standing by its target of 50,000 fewer people on the Jobseeker benefit, despite the numbers heading in the wrong direction and a predicted rise in unemployment.
In December 2023 – just after the coalition government took office – there were 190,000 people receiving Jobseeker.
It pledged slashing that to 140,000, but by the end of December there were 223,500 – a rise of more than 33,000.
That has since dipped to 215,000 by the end of March.
Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston said “the point of a target is an outcome to aim for”.
The government did not accept that a life on the benefit was as good as it got, she said.
“Our vision is more ambitious and aspirational than that. Work provides people not just with better incomes, but also more opportunities, meaning and purpose.”
Upston said in the year ended March, 85,000 people were off the benefit and into work.
“That is about 5500 more people than the same period the year before. This happened even as economic conditions remain challenging.”
That proved the government’s settings were working, she said.
The unemployment rate eased to 5.3 percent in the three months ended March – down from a 10-year high of 5.4 percent the previous quarter.
But there have been warnings it will worsen again due to the Iran war, and could reach up to 6 percent.
Upston said higher unemployment was “the inevitable consequence of the inflation-fuelling high spending of the previous government, as well as current global headwinds”.
The government was responding to the fuel crisis in way that was not inflationary and would not add to debt, she said.
Labour’s social development and employment spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime said it was “astonishing” that the National party “still refuses to take responsibility” after two-and-a-half years in power.
“Under their watch, unemployment is soaring, businesses are closing at a 15-year high, and record numbers of Kiwis are exiting the country.”
Prime said Labour would ensure strong employment and training programmes, and back New Zealand businesses to create jobs.
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