Concern over unemployment rate for Pasifika in Aotearoa

Just over 60 percent of Pacific people in Aotearoa New Zealand are employed, new figures show.

The latest Stats NZ data, released this week, said the Pacific employment rate for the September 2024 quarter was at 60.8 percent, down from 63.3 per cent for the same time last year.

For the population of Aotearoa as a whole, the seasonally adjusted employment rate in the September 2024 quarter was 67.8 percent, downslightly from 68.4 percent last quarter, and 69.3 percent in the September 2023 quarter.

Unemployment has risen to a near four-year high as businesses shed staff and people stop looking for work.

The New Zealand Labour Party finance spokesperson is disappointed to see the high unemployment rate in Pacific communities.

Barbara Edmonds said what's worse is that one in four Pacific youth are jobless.

"When you actually drill into the numbers, it shows that 9.9 per cent of Pasifika people are unemployed.

"But what's worse is for our youth, for our rangatahi...those Pacific youth aged between 15 to 24, it's 24.4 per cent so effectively, one in four Pacific youth are unemployed."

Edmonds blames the National government for not investing more in infrastructure builds, saying there are 12,000 fewer construction roles and 12,000 fewer in the agriculture, forestry, and fishing sector.

"These are some of the industries where Pacific people feature prominently as employees.

"[The government] need to keep the economy moving and smooth out this economic cycle."

Edmonds said Pacific people in particular, and Maori, whose unemployment is at 9.2 per cent, are feeling the brunt of this economic cycle.

"I think any unemployment, no matter who you are or your ethnic background, is really tough, particularly now, while things are really expensive.

"So 148,000 Kiwis are now out of work. For me, my major concern is the people - they have bills to pay, they have families to support, and that's why we're calling on the government strongly to get the economy moving through government spending."

Finance Minister Nicola Willis said Labour's Finance spokesperson calling on the government to again ramp up borrowing and spending "underscores just how disconnected from economic reality her party is".

"The solution to improving outcomes for all New Zealanders, including members of the Pacific community, is building a stronger economy that creates jobs and opportunities," she said.

"Unemployment is tough and I feel for anybody who has lost a job or can't find one."

Willis said the Government is in the process of building a stronger economy "by refocusing the education system on the core skills needed for our young to succeed, removing the roadblocks that have been stymieing business, strengthening our international connections, investing in science and innovation and developing a pipeline of infrastructure investments".

"The reason the economy is in a recession is that [Edmonds' Labour] party, while in government, recklessly increased spending to the point that the Reserve Bank had to hike interest rates to bring inflation back under control."

The term 'cost of living crisis' has been thrown around in Aotearoa a lot this year.

Community leader Dave Letele is to close his South Auckland foodbank, saying funding had not kept up with increased demand.

"We all know how tough things are," he said.

"People down at the bottom, there's more and more of them, there's more people, working class, middle class, all being pushed down, so demand on services like ours has just gone through the roof, but the funding is not there to match it."

There has been a 40 percent increase in homelessness in Wellington, according to a charity that works with rough sleepers.