Employment growth disputed by C.U.C.

Press, 27 November 1986, Page 7

Employment growth disputed by C.U.C.

Employment has not increased as greatly as claimed by the Minister of Finance, Mr Douglas, according to a Canterbury' United Council report. Mr Douglas claimed in August that in excess of 12,800 new jobs had been created in Christchurch during the last two years, an increase of about 7 per

At first glance this appeared to be so but over a five-year period the increase in jobs was lower, and probably less than it should have been, said the council’s economist, Mr Phillip Donnelly. Mr Donnelly said the increase picked by Mr Douglas showed the sharpest rise in employment for several years, spanning from February, 1984, to February, 1986, but in comparison with the trends before and since, this rise evened out. The figures were also taken from a survey which did not include areas such as agriculture, fishing, the Armed Forces, and one-man busi-

nesses, most of which had suffered job losses. Population growth also had to be taken into account, and Mr Donnelly estimated that about 12,000 people had left the region in the last five years.

This implied that people had been migrating to other regions or overseas because there was not enough work. Christchurch appeared to have kept up with the national growth rate, but many of these jobs were part-time or self-employ-ment, not as valuable as the growth of full-time jobs.

Part-time jobs had increased because of the growth of certain industries, particularly in the tourism and finance sectors. These had contributed 70 per cent of the job increase, but relied heavily on part-time workers.

In contrast, two major areas of full-time employment, manufacturing and community and personal services (such as lawyers,

businesses and accountants), had hardly grown at all.

Mr Donnelly said indications that employment was on the decrease again could be found in a more recent survey, the Household Labour Force Survey. Since the February, 1986, figures which Mr Douglas had referred to, the survey estimated 57,000 people had lost their jobs, although the registered unemploj'ed had increased only 700. About 3100 people had moved out of the region, leaving about 2000 people who had, for various reasons, decided not to reenter the workforce. The end result of all these figures was that employment had probably risen about 4 per cent, but was not as high as Mr Douglas’s claim, said Mr Donnelly. Copies of the report were forwarded to the Minister of Employment, Mr Burke, and to Mr Douglas. New chairman, page 3