August 18, 2016
Structure issues keep Maori jobless rate high
The Council for Trade Unions says there is little to celebrate in the latest jobless data.
The Government is patting itself on the back for a drop in the overall figure from 5.7 percent to 5.2 percent.
But CTU economist Bill Rosenberg says that was achieved by excluding people looking for jobs on the internet – even though that's what they are increasingly being encouraged to do.
Also of concern is the number of young people not in employment, education or training, which contributes to the disproportionately high Mori unemployment rate of 11.2 percent.
"Part of it is simply because young people tend to have have higher unemployment than older people and of course a bigger proportion of Maori are young but also because many Maori live in areas like Northland where unemployment is still very high," Dr Rosenberg says.
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