N.Z. job losses in last year more than 80,000

Press, 8 March 1989, Page 1

N.Z. job losses in last year more than 80,000

PETER LUKE

By

in Wellington New Zealand lost 80,176 jobs between November, 1987, and November 1988, according to the Labour Department’s quarterly employment survey. That represents a drop in total employment of 6.8 per cent over the last year, with most job losses being full-time employees. The survey, released yesterday, sampled about 76,000 busi-

nesses, employing 70 per cent of the labour force. But the sampling does not include one-person businesses, farming and fishing, waterfront and sea-going work, the Armed Forces, and domestic work. Between August and November last year, total employment shrank by 9721, or 0.9 per cent, made up of 8052 fewer full-time employees and 2223 fewer working proprietors. But there was a small rise — 554 — in part-time employees.

November’s fall in total employment was far less drastic than in August, when the total fell 33,615. In the November year the number of full-time employees fell 68,331; part-time employees 7052; and working proprietors 4793. In total there were 807,919 full-time employees, 203,007 part-timers, and 86,015 working proprietors. Full-time employee numbers reached a recent high in Feb-

ruary, 1986, when the total reached 907,246. Since then they have contracted by almost 100,000 with the biggest fall coming last year. Over the same period parttimers have risen almost 20,000 but working proprietor numbers have dropped more than 6000. The Opposition spokesman on employment, Mr Winston Peters, said that the number of full-time jobs had reached its lowest level in 15 years.

“When one considers Labour was elected in 1984 and in 1987 with a promise to escalate job growth, then these figures are a damning testimony as to their failure,” he said. But the Minister of Employment, Mr Goff, pointed to the smaller decrease in the November quarter, compared with August. Seasonally adjusted figures showed a quarterly drop of 1.2 per cent in November, com-

pared with 1.5 per cent the previous quarter. New Zealand was expected to return to positive economic growth this year, with improvements already seen in inflation, and trade figures, and the continued strength of main export prices, Mr Goff said. “These factors are expected to result in a further slowing of job losses, followed by a return to job growth in the 1989-90 financial year.”