April 21, 2020
Training and redeployment fix of job losses
Employment Minister Willie Jackson says it would not be acceptable to have Māori unemployment blowing out because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Before the lockdown Māori unemployment stood at just 8.4 percent, but there are fears in some quarters it could go over 20 percent to levels not seen since the recession of the early 1990s.
Mr Jackson says a lot of effort has gone in the past couple of years into getting the Māori rate down, and the targeted funding will continue.
"Māori unemployment will go into double figures but what have we got to do? We've got to look at redeploying. We've got to look at upskilling. We're not walking away from some of these rangatahi, continuing with the work we have done in He Poutama Rangatahi, continue the work we have done with Mana and Mahi," he says.
Willie Jackson
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