Jobless total leaps to 162,821

Press, 25 January 1989, Page 1

Jobless total leaps to 162,821

By

PETER LUKE

in Wellington

Unemployment has leapt to a record 162,821, but the 12.1 per cent of the workforce this represents have been given scant hopes of a quick Government solution.

Instead, the Government is placing its faith in other, more positive indicators flowing through into increased jobs — helped by a Cabinet conference on February 8, which will tackle the barriers to employment. The latest Labour Department figures show that registered unemployed (including vacation workers) rose 56,412 in the year ended last month.

In November and December alone, the jobless total grew nearly 11,000. Just over one-fifth of the work force in the Whangarei and Gisborne districts is now out of work. Total registered unemployment in the seven South Island districts ranges from 10.6 per cent in Invercargill to 15 per cent in Timaru.

Unemployment in Christchurch increased 1324 in December, to 17,945, or 12 per cent of the workforce.

The Prime Minister, Mr Lange, yesterday described economic and employment growth as his Government’s top priority. He announced that an unemploy-ment-tackling session by Cabinet members and top officials would be held on February 8. Originally scheduled for late December, this session was delayed by the events surrounding the departure of the former Minister of Finance, Mr Douglas, from the Cabinet.

Mr Lange and his Minister of Employment, Mr Goff, are looking to more structural solutions to the jobless problem — not a return to make-work schemes.

The February 8 session might consider a further development of existing schemes, Mr Lange said.

“But I have to tell you that there is a limit to schemes,” he said, making it clear that the huge financial demands of largescale return-to-work schemes could not conceivably be accepted. It is likely that Government

work schemes will continue to concentrate on the long-term unemployed. Yesterday’s figures show that 31 per cent of the unemployed (excluding vacation workers) have been jobless for more than six months.

Mr Lange said that he regretted nothing that had happened during the economic readjustment since 1984, though he acknowledged that the changes had been painful for many people.

Instead he alluded to more positive indicators, such as the fall in inflation and the abandonment of a cost-plus mentality. These improvements would now allow the Government to tackle the "intolerable” rate of unemployment. The February 8 session would co-ordinate the Government’s approach to the problem and concentrate on ways to eliminate barriers to employment. One possible barrier might be whether redundancy payments deterred employers from increasing their workforces.

Mr Goff yesterday also pointed to an economic upturn, but said it would take time for this to be reflected in job growth. “We need a partnership between the Government and all sector groups to ensure this happens. Clearly the development of a compact has a key role to play here.”

But the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Bolger, accused the Government of destroying the lives of tens of thousands of individuals, families, and communities. His spokesman on employment, Mr Winston Peters, labelled the forthcoming Cabinet session pathetic. “The Government just don’t have the guts to face the issue. Their past efforts have been thinly-disguised public relations events as they refuse to accept the folly of their economic policies,”. he said.