Fast start on job policy urged
Air New Zealand
Auckland Council
Fletcher
Millennium/Copthorne hotels
Sky City
Skyline Enterprises
Virgin Australia
Sudima Hotels
Ngai Tahu
Hilton Queenstown
Flight Centre
Hobbiton
Bauer
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National Party leader Todd Muller is urging the Government to adopt his cash-for-jobs policy as part of its response to Covid-19.
Announced on Friday, the policy would give businesses $10,000 for each hire they make. It would come into force in November if National won the general election.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson said he was prepared to consider the JobStart policy, while adding the Government focus was on keeping people in work and creating new jobs now — not in November.
Muller said yesterday the proposal could be introduced “within weeks” if the Government picked it up. He
TAB
NZME
Steel & Tube
Airways
H&J Smith
Event Cinemas
Hermitage Hotel Mt Cook
Carter Holt Harvey
Farmers
Green Cabs
AJ Hackett
Good Group
Te Puia
Bunnings has asked Robertson for a meeting to discuss it further.
“As the Minister, Mr Robertson can direct officials to fine-tune the policy and implement the administrative details to get this up and running immediately,” he said.
The minister was unavailable yesterday and could not confirm whether he would accept the invitation.
On Friday Robertson said JobStart was not new and similar schemes had been introduced after the Global Financial Crisis in New Zealand. He also raised concerns about parts of the policy.
“For example, the idea that you could get $5000 and then sack someone after 90 days, you’d want to be careful about that.”
Tourism Holdings
Altus Enterprises
Mediaworks 2Degrees
James Hardie
Smiths City
Tower insurance
Fuji Xerox
Auckland Airport
NZ Rugby
Invercargill Licensing Trust
Jucy Rentals
NZ Steel
VBase
Under National’s policy, companies would be paid $5000 when the new employee was hired and a further $5000 after the new hire had been employed for 90 days.
Robertson also said the Government would want to make sure that such a scheme was creating genuinely sustainable jobs rather than
Hanmer Springs Heritage Hotel
The Warehouse
Kathmandu
Toll NZ
Patchell Group Rotorua
Mitre 10 Whangaparaoa
Hanmer Springs Pool & Spa
Gore District Council
Pegasus Bay Winery
NZ Cricket
Transport World
Thompson Construction & Engineering
The list represents jobs reported in the media and includes proposed and confirmed losses.
We welcome constructive ideas that are about getting people into work. Grant Robertson
simply shifting people between workplaces. “But we welcome constructive ideas that are about getting people into work.”
National’s policy was capped at $500 million, meaning it could create up to 50,000 jobs.
Figures released by Statistics New Zealand this week showed the number of jobs fell by a record 37,000 or 1.7 per cent in April alone, the biggest monthly fall in percentage terms in 20 years, when the measurement was established.
Since New Zealand went into lockdown, 43,810 have applied for the Jobseeker benefit. That rate has slowed drastically in recent weeks, with fewer than 400 applying in the week to May 22 — down from around 1000 a day at the peak of lockdown.
This does not show the full picture of joblessness from Covid-19, because some people out of work cannot get a benefit if their partner is working.
A Herald analysis shows more than 14,000 people have lost their jobs from several major New Zealand companies.
There have been a number of high profile announcements from major companies about widespread job losses, with 3500 at Air New Zealand, 1000 at Fletcher Building, more than 910 at Millennium & Copthorne Hotels. Auckland Council cut 1100 temporary and contractor staff.
Although unemployment was only 4.2 per cent at the end of March, the figure now is likely to be significantly higher, with expectations it could hit 10 per cent this year.