The Government got smacked in the nose today with some numbers that reflect poorly on their management of the economy.
8000 more Kiwis lost their jobs and moved onto the dole in the past three months.
That's 8000 new people out of work and onto welfare in the three months of July, August and September. That's 8000 people in just 12 weeks.
That’s a town the size of Matamata, so the equivalent of every person in Matamata who lives there loses their job. It’s not insignificant.
PM Luxon is pointing the finger at everyone else - saying it’s the lag effect from the previous Labour Government.
But Luxon has been in office a year and this now rests on him. The economy is weak and he must take responsibility for the bad news like he does when there is good news.
He should look in the mirror if he wants to find the person ultimately responsible. He's in charge of this Government, is he not?
He stands as the leader of this Government’s economic plan which has failed to fire this year and economic growth is flat.
High power prices saw sawmills close in rural towns. Hundreds of workers lost their jobs. The Government owns 51% of these power gentailers. What's it doing about it?
More than 7000 public servants have been laid off - some have been picked up and got other work - many haven't in this shrinking economy.
Construction workers have also been hard hit. Many have simply fled for the Gold Coast.
As a result, 8000 more Kiwis have signed up for the dole or the job seeker benefit to survive as the economy turned and weakened further.
Now, the irony in this is that National's aim is to have 50,000 fewer people on the dole by 2030 - but it's trending the wrong way, and will even get worse than has been reported today with another 10,000 workers expected to lose their jobs before unemployment peaks at 5.2 percent next year.
They are in office and they can’t blame others now for the next rise in workers losing their jobs.
Luxon needs to man up and own the fact he’s overseeing this or resign and say he’s run out of ideas already and doesn’t wish to take responsibility for the slide.
He was happy to take credit for the OCR cut last week and falling mortgage interest rates but on this bad news he's blaming it on the lag effect and Labour. Good try Christopher.
He can't have it both ways, not when many of those job losses are public servants - they lost their jobs as a direct result of this Government.
National has also overseen hiring freezes and ridiculously nurses can't get jobs in their own country.
But part of National’s plan to get people working is not investment in training or industry, but investment in chasing up the unemployed and putting the heat on them to get back to work.
Sanctions, penalties and the like are being threatened if they don't look for work. So a further 10,000 beneficiaries will face tougher scrutiny about why they are out of work and if they don’t choose to look for work or even move towns for work they will face having their welfare benefit cut.
But Luxon and his Welfare Minister Louise Upston weren't sure if beneficiaries were going to be forced to move towns to seek work. They said 'no', then 'maybe', then it was up to the case manager on a case by case basis.
What's the policy, Prime Minister? You're making this up.
The problem is, all of a sudden the jobs aren't as plentiful as they once were.. and National’s big jobs target of having 50,000 fewer Kiwis on the dole within 5 years has taken a serious hit.
It's trending in the wrong direction and it's the most crucial part of anyone’s life besides their kids - their job, their means to an end, the bit that fulfills them and keeps them fed and dry and warm.
Just days after Luxon was waxing lyrical about the economy bouncing back, I wonder if his economy is more like roadkill - dead flat and going nowhere fast.
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