One of the Government’s key programmes to get young people into work is currently having a 27% success rate according to a response to a written question from Social Development Minister Louise Upston.
Last year, Upston revealed she had secured $9.45 million to expand the number of places for young job seekers in community-led employment programmes by 2100, taking the number from 5400 to 7500.
In a press release last August, she said: “Under our Welfare that Works programme, more young people will get a needs assessment, a job plan and tailored support, including job coaching, to help them access education, training and employment opportunities.”
Of those 2100 places that were funded, however, only 1071 had been taken up to date, with 292 of those 1071 individuals ending up in employment.
Asked by 1News whether Upston believed the programme was a failure, she said: “No it’s not, and that number also includes people who are still in the programme who haven’t completed and, as I said, some people have more challenges than others.”
Upston did, however, acknowledge that it was tough for many to find a job at the moment. “Well they’re challenging to find, and as I said the labour market’s really tight.
“At the end of a recession it’s the final thing to come right.
“If I think about the work that I’m doing in tourism to attract more visitors here, that’s about getting more Kiwis into tourism and hospitality careers.”
Upston backed the Government’s job creation efforts. “The Government is creating the conditions where jobs are created, absolutely.
“Then, in terms of the infrastructure work, the $6 billion of infrastructure projects that will start before Christmas, absolutely, that’s creating jobs. If you create, there will be some people who are trying incredibly hard to get a job. There will be others at the other end of the spectrum that perhaps need to try harder.”
Greens: ‘27% is a failure mark’
The Green Party’s social development spokesperson Ricardo Menendez-March said jobs were disappearing, not being created.
“We’ve been told by people on the ground that the jobs are not there, and you just got to look at the statistics where more people are applying for less jobs they can see out there. It’s really tough for young people out there. This is why the Government needs to stop cutting jobs and sanctioning unemployed people.”
Menendez-March said 27% was “a straight up failure mark”.
“This is why we need a government that is committed to creating jobs as opposed to cutting them.”
He said he believed the Government was making conditions tougher for young people looking for employment.
“More people are applying for fewer job vacancies. After cutting thousands of jobs that our young people could have gone into, they’ve now decided to punch down on the unemployed while increasing benefit sanctions.
“It’s no surprise that our young people are looking overseas for opportunities when they’ve cut thousands of jobs, and the Government has no plan to guarantee a job for every unemployed person.
“Louise Upston needs to face up to the fact that she’s left young people with no opportunities.”
Manaaki Rangatahi — an organisation with a stated mission to end youth homelessness — said it was not a positive environment for young people at the moment.
Spokesperson Brooke Stanley said: “Often the work that is offered to rangatahi is work that’s considered low value and therefore low paid. And so, it’s not like a super inspiring space to kind of be putting yourself out there because there is a lack of jobs in this space — it’s super competitive.”
She said the Government needed to listen to providers more.
“[They] think that the intervention is a programme that’s going to get rangatahi ready for work, without actually addressing some of those structural issues that need to be addressed before they can even be prepared to find work. Jobs are either being cut [or] funding is being cut across the board.”
