Thursday, August 04, 2011



49,000 out of work under National

The Household Labour Force Survey is out, and it shows that unemployment has remained static, at 6.5%. Employment has also remained static. The only area that's growing is the "not in the Labour force" category.

This is life under National, under a government which responds to a recession by doing nothing and waiting for the market to sort itself out. The result is mass unemployment and poverty. There are now 154,000 people out of work, 49,000 more than when the government took office took office. These people have been abandoned by the government, victims of their demented laissez faire ideology. But hey, the rich are doing alright.

It would be nice if we had a government which cared about ordinary New Zealanders, rather than just their rich mates; which did something to help ease these problems, rather than sitting on its hands. But National is ideologically opposed to action of any sort. And so people will remain unemployed. And while the market will no doubt sort itself out after a while, the human cost will be far higher than it should be.