‘Playing with figures’

Press, 28 August 1978, Page 1

‘Playing with figures’

PA Auckland The politically sensitive debate on unemployment has erupted again in claim and counter-claim over the Government’s employment statistics. On Saturday: — The Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) was accused of painting a far from true picture of New Zealand’s unemployment; — An appeal was made to politicians to stop “playing with figures,” and for better researched employment statistics. — A recently published assessment of the labour market in the Labour and Employment Gazette was

branded as out of date. — The chairman of the Government caucus committee on labour (Mr A. G. Malcolm), came to the Government’s defence and produced figures to show unemployment in New Zealand was not as bad as in several other Western countries. Mr Muldoon’s accuser was a newly formed lobby group, the Auckland Committee on Unemployment, whose chairman is Dr B. M. Hucker. In its first newsletter, the committee said Mr Muldoon’s recent statement that the number on

the dole was only 2 per cent of the work force, and that the figure compared favourably with other Western countries, suggested that the unemployment problem was

minor. “This is a far from true picture,” said the committee. “and the comparison with other countries is quite misleading.” Unlike other Western Governments, the New Zealand Government did not count the number of married women seeking work, school-leavers who had returned to school, those under 16, those on redundancy pay or living off savings or supported by their families while they sought work. A truer figure, the committee suggested, would be from 130,000 to 150,000 or one in 10 of the work force.

The figure was sup» ported by the 1976 census, which showed that there were three people requiring work for every one who was registered unemployed.

“If we take this as being similar to the statistics kept overseas, we would find that our unemployment rate does not compare most favourably," the committee said. “The truth is that noone knows exactly how real or how widespread the problem is, or precisely what effect it is having on the lives of the people concerned.

“The real need is for politicians to stop playing with figures and to develop policies on the basis Of sound research." Members of the corn* mittee have met officials of the Labour Department in Auckland and South Auckland, and say that the departments public servants are under pressure in the face of serious unemployment. It said there was a serious gap between the head office in Wellington and district offices, and there was a lack Of adequate consultation between the Labour Department and the Department of Social Welfare.