Jobless in Chch exceed 10,000

Press, 25 January 1988, Page 1

Jobless in Chch exceed 10,000

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington

Unemployment in Christchurch has passed the 10,000 mark, the highest in the country, and the registered unemployed now account for more than 7 per cent of the national workforce.

At 97,495, the number of registered unemployed in December was nearly 20,000 (19,325) higher than in December a year ago. The monthly employment figures for December from the •Labour Department were described by the Opposition spokesman on employment, Mr Winston Peters (Nat., Tauranga), as “showing the utter incompetence of the Government.” The Minister of Employment, Mr Goff, said they reflected the October sharemarket crash. Unemployed job seekers rose 6610 over the 90,885 in November and now constitute 7.3 per cent of the workforce. Included among those registered as unemployed were 7096 school leavers — 1906 more than in November and 1778 more than a year ago. Of those registered, 30,879 had been enrolled for less than four weeks, 24,524 for four to 13 weeks, 17,901 for 13 to 26 weeks, and 24,191 for more than six months. Christchurch showed the biggest increase for the month — 1050 — rising from 9411 to 10,461, and North Canterbury is the only area of the country with unemployment running into five figures. Big increases were also recorded in Auckland, up 990 to 7818; Manukau, up 928 to 7798;

Hamilton, up 793 to 9946; Palmerston North, up 634 to 4170; Wellington, up 605 to 4069; Rotorua, up 578 to 7669; Whangarei, up 529 to 6813; and Dunedin, up 326 to 6403. The only areas where unemployment fell were Invercargill, down 973 to 3153; Timaru, down 288 to 1827; and Napier, down 59 to 2794.

Northland still has the worst level of unemployment in the country at 15.7 per cent. Gisborne was nearly as bad with 14.3 per cent, Rotorua had 13 per cent, Greymouth had 12.8 per cent, Napier had 10.2 per cent and New Plymouth 10.1 per cent.

The areas with the lowest levels of unemployment were — Takapuna 1 per cent, Lower Hutt 3.1 per cent, Wellington 4.1 per cent and Auckland 4.3 per cent. Detailed figures for the northern South Island (with November figures in parenthesis) were:— Blenheim: 872 (843) males, 460 (396) females, 1332 (1239) total, 9.6 per cent of the workforce. Nelson: 1576 (1424), 904 (768), 2400 (2192), 9.5 per cent. Greymouth: 1280 (1214), 427 (365), 1707 (1579), 12.8 per cent. Christchurch: 7025 (6517), 3436 (2894), 10,461, (9411), 6.9 per cent.

Timaru: 1160 (1500), 667 (615), 1827 (2115), 8.0 per cent.