Jobs test for Government

Press, 27 July 1988, Page 16

Jobs test for Government

The monthly unemployment figures continue to fall with a numbing thud on the nation. The figures are reaching higher and higher levels, and they are predicted to rise further and to remain high for a long time. New Zealand for several decades enjoyed and exalted full employment or nearly full employment; we have a proper distaste for unemployment and its consequences; the small number of workers that used to be out of jobs we trumpeted to the world; most of us have no experience of living in a society in which unemployment is pervasive and entrenched.

For these emotional and historical reasons the present rate of unemployment plainly is worrying a great many New Zealanders, and they put it at the top of their list of national concerns. But it is on the unemployed themselves that the heaviest burden falls. It is a matter almost of cliche but is true for all that: to be out of work is to feel demeaned, to be open more than normally wide to the destructive stresses of life.

This severity of the crisis in New Zealand’s life, measured against the standards enjoyed in the 1960 s and 19705, has led to substantial dissatisfaction with the Government, and rightly so. It is the Government that is rightly seen as being responsible for the policies that have so hugely reduced the numbers of jobs in New Zealand. That is a harsh judgment. It should be modified. If the economy was to be reformed so that it could produce substantial and sustained prosperity, soundly based, some

radical reform was necessary. The critics of radical reform have not been able to produce a persuasively comprehensive alternative. A surge in unemployment was inevitable once the attack on low productivity was launched. Less certain is a long-term growth in jobs when productivity improves. This is the Government’s real problem. The pace of its policies has been urgent; the adjustment in the economy has been slow in coming. The Government, in effect, has been saying: “Blame us, if you will, for the results of pulling the props from inefficient or uncompetitive businesses; but do not blame us for the failure of new industries to grow.”

A point is now being reached at which the costs - of low productivity, or of uncompetitive industries, are being transferred into dole payments borne by the taxpayers. This is the reality that the Government cannot avoid. It must ask itself if it can hold out against some calculated boost to the economy. Can it in good conscience impose more short-term misery for the hope of long-term happiness? Can it afford the cost of supporting more than eight per cent of the population who can find no work? Pointing to some success with exporting and a decline in imports may be helpful to get applause on the financial front. If it is going to persevere with its policy, the Government will have to do more to persuade citizens that the human cost is worth-while. Gentle warnings that unemployment will get worse are not sufficient. More is needed to raise confidence that the downturn will end and not just reinforce the drift to very serious recession.