New survey to replace jobless register?

Press, 27 November 1986, Page 2

New survey to replace jobless register?

Wellington reporter The Minister of Employment, Mr Burke, confirmed yesterday that the Household Labour Force Survey may replace the Labour Department’s monthly register as the measure of unemployment. He said he intended to raise the issue with his colleagues. Discrepancies between the two indexes caused controversy last week when the survey showed an unemployment rate of 3.8 per cent against the 5.6 per cent recorded by the Labour Department. Mr Burke said the survey, which was started by the Government last year as New Zealand’s official

unemployment record, was a superior measure and enabled a fair comparison with other countries.

He quoted a number of reasons for its superiority. Among these were that some people with jobs were still on the register, that others registered were not actively looking for work, and that its unemployment percentage figures were based on the 1981 census although the workforce was estimated to have grown more than 230,000 in the intervening years.

He also said the start of ACCESS next year would make the register even less relevant as people would be able to enrol for ACCESS training without first having to register as unemployed.