Call for action over jobless Kiwi youths

About 40 per cent of the super-city’s unemployed young people live in South Auckland.

That’s the belief of Salvation Army social policy analyst Alan Johnson, the author of a 62-page army report on the employment needs of Kiwis aged 15 to 24.

Entitled What Next?, it argues young people shouldn’t be allowed to leave school without going into employment or training.

Johnson describes youth unemployment in South Auckland as a ‘‘serious problem’’.

‘‘You can see it in the streets with people washing car windows or hanging around at bus stops with no purpose to their day.’’

Those circumstances can lead to problems such as street violence, he says.

The Sallies report identifies three challenges to reducing youth unemployment and lays out a series of recommendations to tackle the problem.

Challenges include the estimated 75,000 people aged under 24 who are either unemployed or marginally employed.

‘‘Eventually they move into the labour force after they turn 25,’’ Johnson says.

‘‘[But] they’re often scarred and their attachment to the labour market is diminished as a result of what happened to them in their earlier years.

‘‘That’s a shame and it needs to stop.’’