Unemployment statistics not

encouraging for the Pacific

In a developed society, there is nothing more dispir iting to any fit person of any age, race or colour than not being able to get a job. To wake up every morning with nothing to do is devastating to self-esteem.

It creates a sense of worthlessness that those in regular employ ment can scarcely comprehend.

It is bad enough for the individual. When whole communities in a society are in this situation it lays a very dangerous base for severe social and economic disruption.

That is the scary prospect for New Zealand as Maori and Pacific Island people continue to figure disproportionately in the unemployment statistics.

At the time of writing, 18.3 per cent of Maori of working age are jobless. The unemployment rate for Pacific Island people is 16.4 per cent.

These figures compare with a nation-wide rate of 7.1 per cent - the highest in nearly four years - and Pakeha unemployment of 5.5 per cent.

The picture is even worse when you look at long-term unem ployment. The number of Maori out of work for more than two years jumped 82 per cent last year and that of Pacific Island peo ple’s 63 per cent, against a 55 per cent increase for Europeans.

Even more alarming, four out of every 10 unemployed are 15 to 24 years old- giving little hope to the generation on which every country’s future depends.

Government ministers agree these figures are “unacceptable” but seem helpless to do anything to rectify a situation that is wors ening and shows little sign of radical improvement.

Economists predict the overall unemployment rate will rise to 8 per cent next year and there is no reason to suppose the Maori and Pacific Island rates will not grow with it.

At best, the government forecasts it will not dip below 6 per cent until after the turn of the century and that could be wishful

thinking.

Ministers boast that more jobs are being created but statistics show that while job numbers have increased by 8,000 since June 1996, the working age population has grown more than 59,000 at the same time.

The problem has its roots in the radical reform of New Zealand’s economy since the mid-1980s - a reform that had to take place but found Maori and Pacific Island people the most vulnerable.

They were over represented in the unskilled and semi-skilled occupations of a

manufacturing

sector that has

undergone a massive shake-up. They are under-represented in the highly skilled high growth industries that have replaced them - a one-time factory worker simply cannot become a computer pro grammer overnight.

Older workers are ill-equipped to find a place in the new econ omy. Youngsters - and there are many of them in the Maori and Pacific Island communities - have low levels of educational attain ment and do not figure highly in the ranks of those undergoing

formal occupational training.

Large numbers of them are growing up without having seen their parents go to work, families where a welfare benefit has become accepted as the only income.

With the social welfare budget now nudging towards $l4 bil lion a year, the government is well aware of the cost of such dependency and committed to doing something about it.

The question is will the scheme it has come up with do the trick? Will it get unemployed Maori and Pacific Island people into jobs? Well, the jury could be out on that one for some time.

The government’s idea is to scrap the dole from October 1, replacing it with a so-called community wage. This means that they expect everyone on unemployment benefits to work up to 20 hours a week - or undergo training - for their money.

The community wage will give them the current benefit of just under $l5O a week, plus an extra $2l travel allowance to get to and from their jobs. Failing to work risks losing their money.

Further, they intend to test people receiving sickness and invalids’ benefits for their ability to work, as will solo parents and widows, who will have to take jobs part-time or full-time depend ing on the age of their children. By September next year, this could force about 280,000 beneficiaries to work or take substan tial cuts to their benefits.

That, of course, is if the jobs are there. Treasurer Winston Peters says there are “tens of thousands” of jobs available, despite the 7.1 per cent unemployment rate. He talks about cutting gorse, helping in schools and rest homes, clearing rubbish and assisting charities and the elderly.

Now these are all praiseworthy tasks, but will they equip Maori and Pacific Island people to take up a meaningful long-term place in the workforce? Critics say no. They say depression-type work creation programmes will not solve New Zealand’s problems, but aggravate them. They say they will lock unskilled people like many of the Maori and island jobless into meaningless tasks that will have quite the opposite effect to the avowed aim of restoring dignity and self-esteem.

It certainly doesn’t look the type of work that reflects a fast changing New Zealand economy - one built on education and technology - with meaningful roles for every sector of a multi racial and multi-cultural community.

Unless New Zealand can achieve that, the future - for econom ic equality, and thereby racial peace and harmony - does not look very bright. ■

David Barber

Sydney