Recession could lead to brain drain, employment minister Louise Upston says

Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston has admitted New Zealand could lose some of its "best and brightest" overseas while in recession.

Upston said Treasury was forecasting jobseeker numbers to go up, hitting a peak next January.

"People who are in that set of circumstances, and I really feel for them, have to make some tough choices, and for some that may well mean that we lose a range of people, including some of our best and brightest, offshore," she said.

Upston said job losses were the reality of being in a recession, which she blamed on decisions the previous government made.

"It's challenging, and unfortunately the realities of a recession mean that there will be businesses and organisations that have to reduce their staff numbers, and then it's for those individuals and their families to make tough choices about what they will do next."

She was hopeful people could stay in New Zealand if they were convinced the coalition government was dealing with the cost of living crisis and rebuilding the economy.

"If people have confidence that we are on the right track, and that the economy is rebuilding, then hopefully fewer will make that decision that there are more opportunities offshore," she said.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins said it was a government's job to make New Zealand a place people wanted to live, work, and stay.

"To see a senior government minister predicting that we're going to have a brain drain, and effectively shrugging their shoulders and saying 'oh that would be a rational choice on the part of the people leaving the country' is pretty disgraceful really," he said.

Hipkins rejected the suggestion the previous government was to blame for any expected brain drain.

"Our track record speaks for itself. We kept New Zealanders in work during some of the toughest economic circumstances that the country has faced in a generation, and as a result we saw people staying in the country," he said.

"Louise Upston is now effectively waving the white flag and saying 'unemployment is going to go up, people are going to leave the country as a result, and the government's okay with that'. They shouldn't be OK with that."

ACT leader and Minister of Regulation David Seymour said he was sorry things were the way they were, but Upston was correct.

"Unfortunately, she's telling the truth. I know people have long said they want a politician that tells the truth, now you've got one and people don't like that either," he said.

Seymour blamed the previous government for living beyond its means, but said one of the reasons he was in government was to turn things around.

"If we don't fix regulation, infrastructure funding and financing, education, and have a conception of who we are as New Zealanders that's inclusive of all, then people will leave. We saw that last year, 47,000 net loss of citizens. That's a real problem."

Green Party Social Development and Employment spokesperson Ricardo Menéndez March said Upston was both accepting there could be more people on a benefit, while at the same time lowering benefit increases.

"The minister could prevent people feeling like they have to move overseas by providing adequate income support, such as by raising the jobseeker benefit to allow people to survive," he said.