Business Growth Agenda disappoints on jobs

MoBIE Job Ads data out today confirms that National’s Business Growth Agenda is a huge disappointment on the jobs front, Labour’s economic development spokesperson David Cunliffe said.

“Last week Steven Joyce issued another glossy Business Growth Agenda report – Building Skilled and Safe Workplaces. It contained laudable goals, including moving people into work. Unfortunately it was just another laundry-list of the tired National Party ideologies which have delivered four years of economic gloom.

“So it’s ironic that Mr Joyce’s own MoBIE ministry today reported a 4.5 per cent crash in job ads in September,” David Cunliffe said.

“What’s particularly concerning is the disproportionate 5.4 per cent decline in ads for high-value jobs. There was a 3.8 per cent drop in construction and engineering ads, a 6.9 per cent fall in IT job ads, and a 7.6 per cent crash in education and training ads. These suggestions of contraction will hurt all New Zealanders in the downstream.

“Job ads fell in every region, with a huge 9.9 per cent crash in North Island job ads (excluding Auckland and Wellington). The 1.4 per cent decline in Canterbury job ads will be depressing news for Cantabrians hoping to see a pickup in earthquake recovery,” David Cunliffe said.

“Labour has a vision for a clean, green, clever economy. Unfortunately it’s increasingly clear that National’s vision is ‘dirty, backwards and dumb’. While the economy burns and new records are set in Australian emigration, the economic development minister Steven Joyce seems to do nothing but print brochures.

“New Zealanders who voted for a brighter future will rightly feel disappointed,” David Cunliffe said.