Youth unemployment continues to rise under Nats

new-zealand-labour-party

Fri Aug 06 2010 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

Youth unemployment continues to rise under Nats

Friday, 6 August 2010, 10:28 am
Press Release: New Zealand Labour Party

**Youth unemployment continues to rise under National
**
The latest unemployment figures show that youth unemployment is still steadily increasing, with those in their twenties particularly struggling to find work, says Labour’s Youth Affairs spokesperson Jacinda Ardern.

The June Quarterly Household Labour Force Survey, released yesterday, shows that, while the unemployment rate for those aged 15-19 has decreased slightly, the number of young people aged 20-24 not in work has increased dramatically to 68,200.

The number of 20-24 year olds without a job has increased 2.6 percent since March, meaning that 13.7 percent of youth in this age group have been unable to find work.

“The Minister for Youth Affairs, Paula Bennett, has continuously heralded schemes such as Job Ops and Community Max for making ‘a real difference to youth’, but it is increasingly apparent that the Minister is simply trying to shift the focus from youth unemployment to schemes designed to lower benefit numbers.

Paula Bennett has done nothing to address youth unemployment, which leads me to one conclusion: the Government has no practical long term solution to tackling this issue,” Jacinda Ardern said.

“It's time the government looked at the solutions used in Australia, for instance, investing heavily in skills training and tertiary education to help young people into long term work. Instead our government continues to limit access to these options.

“The Government has once again failed to meet the needs of some of our most vulnerable young people. The Minister needs to demonstrate a genuine commitment to young people by taking steps to address the issue of youth unemployment.

ENDS

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