Mr Burke blames lay-offs for jobless rise

Press, 16 August 1985, Page 3

Mr Burke blames lay-offs for jobless rise

Staff reporters

Registered unemployment increased 3.8 per cent last month, according to Labour Department figures given yesterday.

The Minister of Employment, Mr Burke, attributed the increase, the second in succession, to seasonal layoffs in the Otago and Southland freezing industry. In support of this analysis, he said Dunedin and Invercargill showed between them an increase of 2205 while the rest of New Zealand showed a drop of 360.

The leader of the Democratic Party, Mr Beetham, preferred to concentrate on interest rate inflation to explain the increase. He said businesses were being forced to retrench either by laying off staff or by failing to replace them. The Opposition spokesman on labour, Mr George Gair, said the increase might be the start of an upward trend.

“If it were not for the significant emigration rates this year, the unemployment figures would have been much worse,” he said.

The department’s records show that 49,984 people, or 3.8 per cent of the estimated workforce, were registered unemployed at July 26, an increase of 1845 over the

corresponding figure at the end of June but a decrease of 15,223 on the July, 1984, total.

Mr Burke described the results as very encouraging with some "major breakthroughs.” He said it was the first time since August, 1979, that the number on the department’s books in the Auckland region had been below 10,000.

Other significant drops were recorded in Wellington, down 332; Rotorua, down 268; Christchurch, down 184; and Hamilton, down 160. Significant increases were recorded in Invercargill, up 1535; Dunedin, up 670; Napier, up 202; Palmerston North, up 196; and Timaru, up 169.

Mr Burke particularly welcomed the continuing fall in the number of schoolleavers on the dole saying that at 2991 it was the lowest July total for six years.

He also noted that the number of long-term unemployed had dropped substantially. Of the total registered at July 26, 16,386, or 32 per cent, had been listed for less than four weeks; 18,702 or 37 per cent, for four to 12 weeks; 8841, or 17 per cent, for 13 to 25 weeks; and only 6055, or 12 per cent, for more than 26

weeks. Against the slight increase in straight-out unemployed, the numbers in jobcreation schemes have continued to drop. The number in partly subsidised work was 14,595, down 673 on the June, 1985, figure and 4264 on July last year. The same pattern showed in fully subsidised employment where the number was 17,965, down 88 on the previous month and 4897 on the previous year.

The experience across districts in the upper half of the South Island was mixed last month. The number of registered unemployed, excluding vacation workers, rose five in Blenheim to 510 and 169 in Timaru to 1232 but Nelson recorded a drop of seven to 1018, Greymouth a drop of eight to 625, and Christchurch a drop of 184 to 6032. The Christchurch district superintendent of the Labour Department, Mr Bill Holland, said that it was a little unusual for this time of the year for a fall in the number of registered unemployed. There was a slight increase in the number of people placed in jobs by the department, but that did not account for the drop of 184 in the number registered as unemployed.