Latest / Best of Business / Alan McDonald: Employers and Manufacturers Association Head of Advocacy on the unemployment rate rising to 5.6%

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Alan McDonald: Employers and Manufacturers Association Head of Advocacy on the unemployment rate rising to 5.6% · Best of Business

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  Speaker 2: Job numbers to the upside headline figure five point six
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  Speaker 2: under utilization rate up all and still a problem for
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  Speaker 2: the whole country.
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  Speaker 3: Of course.
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  Speaker 2: Allen McDonald's EMA's head of Advocacy and Strategy and is
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  Speaker 2: with us. Ellen, very good morning.
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  Speaker 3: To you, morning Mike.
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  Speaker 2: The participation rate, though, is up, so I'm seeing more
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  Speaker 2: job adds up. I'm seeing the participation rate up. We've
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  Speaker 2: got to be close to a tipping point where the
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  Speaker 2: jobs actually soak up the demand.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. I think there were a couple of other little
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  Speaker 3: encouragement encouraging indicators in there too. The number of jobs
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  Speaker 3: new jobs crowed was thirteen thousand, and we saw a
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  Speaker 3: slight dip in the neats that's those eighteen to twenty
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  Speaker 3: four year olds not in employment or education. So that's
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  Speaker 3: kind of positive. And I also think that hopefully now
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  Speaker 3: we've reached the peak. I mean, this is where we
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  Speaker 3: expected to get. Treasury were forecasting this probably twelve eighteen
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  Speaker 3: months ago, and these numbers are always a lag indicator.
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  Speaker 3: We know that underlying there's some good stuff going on.
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  Speaker 3: So hopefully this is the peak and we can start
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  Speaker 3: turning the other way.
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  Speaker 2: The psychology of what we're dealing with, I mean, maybe
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  Speaker 2: this so called war, the Strait whatever, carries on for
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  Speaker 2: a period of time. How do we get over that
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  Speaker 2: hurdle and get on with life.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think what we're seeing and it was quite instructive.
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  Speaker 3: I think there was quite a sharp dip when the
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  Speaker 3: Iron War happened in confidence and those and intentions, and
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  Speaker 3: then it popped back up fairly quickly as well, because
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  Speaker 3: what we're seeing more of is people going I'm not
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  Speaker 3: going to wait. I'm not going to hang around till
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  Speaker 3: circumstances get better. I'm just going to get on with life.
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  Speaker 2: How does the election play here? Are we a bit
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  Speaker 2: nervous about the election and therefore hold off on decision
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  Speaker 2: making round hiring.
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  Speaker 3: I'm not sure that's a bigger factor as we like
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  Speaker 3: to think. And again I'll come back to that mentality. Look,
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  Speaker 3: we're just going to get on with stuff.
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  Speaker 2: Does the North South thing bother you? At three points something?
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  Speaker 2: Person in the south, it's a world away from the North.
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  Speaker 2: I now, I know it's farmers and all that. I
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  Speaker 2: get all that, but that's a gap.
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  Speaker 3: Well, anything closer to three is almost effectively zero unemployment.
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  Speaker 3: But you need the big engine of Auckland, and the
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  Speaker 3: city's really cranking as well, to give that extra impetus
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  Speaker 3: into the economy, and that's not happening. And there are
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  Speaker 3: parts of Auckland where unemployment, particularly in those meats, is
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  Speaker 3: twenty to twenty five percent, and that's no good for anybody.
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  Speaker 2: No, it's crazy. Although I feel a vibe in Auckland
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  Speaker 2: that it's coming right, Is that real or am I
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  Speaker 2: out to lunch?
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  Speaker 3: I think there's a little bit of optimism around finally
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  Speaker 3: setting the end of all the road cones and the
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  Speaker 3: road closures, and things might be happening. And the other
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  Speaker 3: thing that's happening is Auckland's a big engine of manufacturing.
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  Speaker 3: And the manufacturing story is quite strong too. We just
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  Speaker 3: haven't seen that reflected in some of those employment numbers
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  Speaker 3: and that sort of thing. But manufacturing is probably the
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  Speaker 3: untold story around the success of say the exporters as
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  Speaker 3: well because many many men sectors are also the explorterers.
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  Speaker 2: Let us hope for better days. Ellen nice to talk
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  Speaker 2: to Ellen McDonald, Emay's head of advocacy. It is Can
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  Speaker 2: I just say briefly this, You know, when we talk
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  Speaker 2: about the fifteen sixteen year olds, the so called need
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  Speaker 2: to unemployed, we should not in this country be registering
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  Speaker 2: fifteen year olds. If you're a fifteen year old who's
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  Speaker 2: not in school and not in training, there is no
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  Speaker 2: way in the world you should be legally unemployed. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: that's just a social and moral crime. So they shouldn't
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  Speaker 2: even be in the numbers.
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