Shock jobless figures catch out Minister

Press, 11 December 1976, Page 1

Shock jobless figures catch out Minister

PA Hamilton The Minister of Labour (Mr Gordon) was taken by surprise yesterday when telephoned for comment about figures which show 27,210 unemployed on census day —■ three times the official total. ,If the ..hree-to-one error rate between the unemployment register and census figures is applied to the latest total of jobless, true unemployment is running at 11,459.

When relief workers are included, 18,910 are without regular jobs. Mr Gordon twice questioned the figures, and their source.

Subsequently, a spokesman for his office said that Mr Gordon had not yet seen the census calculation, and was checking on the release of the figures.

Most of the unemployment would be among married women who were

not breadwinners, said Mr Gordon.

(The census figures show the biggest block of out-of-work New Zealanders are females aged between 15 and 19). A total of 27,210 New Zealanders listed themselves as out of work and seeking jobs on census day — when registered unemployed totalled 9892. The total, representing a 2.13 per cent unemployment rate, was released by Statistics Department officials, using calculations from a 10 per cent sample of census returns.

The estimates confirm earlier predictions that the official register shows only a third of the true total of jobless. Another forecast — that the register shows only a fraction of unemployed school-leavers — has also been confirmed.

The census figures show 10,490 people aged be-

tween 15 and 19 out of work — 38.5 per cent of the jobless. The unemployment register at the time included only 577 schoolleavers. Mr Gordon was asked whether — in the light of the inaccuracy of the official unemployment register — the Government was likely to adopt other methods of measuring the total jobless. “If we’re going to have to change it, we’ll have to come up with an acceptable alternative,” he said. “We’ve had the register for 50 years. “If someone can produce an acceptable system, without having to disturb people’s privacy. I’ll have a look at it,” he said. “But we shouldn’t have to go round chasing people, asking them whether they’re unemployed or not.” Earlier this year, during

spending cuts, the Government scrapped a Labour Department proposal to include employment questions in the household surveys of the Statistics Department.

Mr Gordon said yesterday that he did not know about this project being cancelled, and would “look into it.”

The Opposition spokesman on industrial matters; Mr Faulkner, said yesterday that the census figures had confirmed what he had always known — that registered unemployed were fewer than the number who wanted to work. He said he favoured measures to encourage people out of work to register, rather than the complex and expensive labourmarket surveys conducted in other countries.

He called on the Government to take “every feasible step” to deal with unemployment.