Coping with unemployment

Press, 13 February 1981, Page 12

Coping with unemployment

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington

As public attention focuses more and more closely 7 on the problems of unemployment, the Government is stepping up its attention to the problems. It has retained . a private, consultancy to in- v vestigate, collate and synthesise the work already done on ' unemployment so that future attention can be directed to coping with the problems. There have been two previous investigations of unemployment during the last 12 months. The Planning Council report - seems to. have had little impact because it did not seem to recognise the point that unemployment affects human beings, -The- report, under- , taken-by- a working party ot the National Research Advisory Council is still only in draft form, so its contents have had little imp-ct. There is . not universal agreement that there is an •unemployment “problem” — but it is now widely acknowledged. It is a controversial problem; it stimulates bitter and often- unproductive public debate. This debate helps it make a political issue which the Government must deal with, but frustrates cool and reasoned action. >< • . The work of the private,., consultants will not be, helped by the controversial nature' of unemployment. The consultants .must complete their report in March, too, which will prevent a detailed .study. Already the study has been labelled a “whitewash” by the Feder--ation .of Labour and Com-, bined. State Services dniprs,. who consider it should have been done by public servants instead of private enterpriser and who also consider it is designed to frustrate proper study of unemployment.

However, the first task of the consultants will be to divert widespread and unproductive attention away .from the exact number of unemployed in New Zealand. The Government bases ' its statistics on the number of registered unemployed; others prefer to calculate the figure on the number of people who want to work but cannot 'md it. The Government’s method provides a definite figure, while the other seems more logical.'ln its recent paper on New Zealand, the United States Embassy in Wellingtonc ommented:— ". .. . ..in. mid-1980 there were 53,461 persons without jobs, a high level for New Zealand. There are no official statistics on the.number of persons who are seeking work but who are not registered as unemployed or on Government-financed work projects. Based on the embassy’s estimate of 1,200,000 persons in the workforce, the unemployed rate was 4.45 per cent. If calculated by United States methods, however, the rate would be at least three per cent higher.” This statement provoked a fierce reaction from the Prime. Minister (Mr Muldoon), which in turn pro--yoked . Labour Opposition support for the United States analysis.- The’ Government often reacts to statements over the number of unemployed, but this is unproductive and seems to help frustrate public awareness of the nature of the problem. Even if it were universally accepted that the “unem-ploj'ed”-were those seeking work but unable to secure

it, instead of simply those registered as unemployed, the dispute would not be over. There would need to be a distinction made between those who were not employed and those who considered themselves unemployed. The difference is considerable; it is not just a case of two similar-sounding words or phrases. Probably most of the 1980 school leavers who have not yet found themselves a job —7OOO was the latest figure quoted — do not consider themselves “unemployed.” As the months go on, many of them will, find their first jobs, while those who do not will begin to think of themselves as “unemployed.” The psychological shift is considerable. If the Government, its public servants, and others such as employers and unions, could get away from thinking about just how many people are unemployed — a useful and interesting, but not vital figure — then attention could be focused on coping with unemployment'. What the unemployed need is direct access to the Minister of Labour (Mr Bolger). They have indirect access to him through Department of Labour officers, but they need direct access, in the same way the Prime Minister has by-passed the public service in setting up a small task force of officers who represent him directly to community and business leaders and who provide a direct link back from these leaders to Mr Muldoon. Workers with the unemployed report that the unemployed feel cut off from anyone who could do any-

thing about their problem. They feel the need to talk to someone who can act or at least carry their message directly to someone who can act/ It is obviously impracticable for Mr Bolger to meet large numbers of individual unemployed people himself, but a small task force with direct access to him could do rhe job. A lot of the anger of the unemployed is because of their frustration. They feel helpless to help themselves, and unable to reach anyone who could help them. They would feel better' if assured in some genuine way that their plight was understood and that they had made some impact as human beings rather than statistics to be argued over in an election year. . The unemployed also feel they are being labelled as groups, rather than seen as individuals. Thus there is widespread discussion over youth unemployment; or Maori unemployment; or school leavers;, -or housewives unable to supplement the earnings of their husbands; or other categories. While it might be convenient to categorise the unemployed, individual youths, Maoris, school leavers, housewives, and others feel less than fully human at being categorised in this way. If somehow the individual unemployed person could be reached under the very different circumstances today by Mr Bolger or Mr Muldoon, in the same way Mr Savage reached individual unemployed people in the 19305, then a lot of heat would be dissipated and prpgress made towards coping with unemployment.