May 12, 2014
Jobs picture shows slight uplift
Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia is accusing opposition parties of telling tall tales about the Maori employment rate.
As election season heats up, Labour and Mana are pointing to the disproportionate unemployment rate among Maori and the fact more than one in five yoiung Maori are without jobs.
But Mrs Turia, who is Associate Minister of Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment, says the signs are actually encouraging.
She says the Maori employment rate in the first quarter was 58.7 percent, compared to 56.3 percent in at the end of March 2013.
Over that same period of reporting, Maori unemployment decreased from 13.9 percent to 13.2 percent.
Mrs Turia says the merchants of doom do a disservice to the great work happening in Maori and Pasifika communities to lift the employment rate.
She says there is a huge work programme in the employment and training sector to address systemic inequities.
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