Unemployment Rate Up Slightly, Long-Term Still The Priority

Given the stronger-than-expected fall in the last quarter of 1996, it is not surprising that the official unemployment rate has risen .5% in the first quarter of this year, Peter McCardle, Minister of Employment said today.

Household Labour Force Survey results for the March 1997 quarter released today show seasonally adjusted unemployment at 6.4%, up from 5.9% in the December 1996 quarter.

``New Zealand can take confidence in the fact that today's 6.4% result still puts our official unemployment rate clearly lower than the OECD average of 7.5% and seventh out of the 21 OECD countries with comparable surveys,'' said Mr McCardle.

``The mix of today's figures and other statistics on long-term unemployment however confirms that duration remains the major challenge for employment policy''

``It is widely accepted that economic growth largely determines the number of unemployed. It is clear that employment policy can affect the duration of unemployment and this is the prime focus of my portfolio.''

``Over the term of this Government, the employment priority will be to address the statistics for long-term unemployment that have become entrenched in NZ since the late 1980s.'' concluded Mr McCardle.