More seek income relief

There are now more than 200,000 New Zealanders receiving Jobseeker Support or the Covid-19 Income Relief Payment.

New data released from the Ministry of Social Development yesterday showed that 56,000 of those people had requested support since March 20.

In the week ending June 26, the number of people receiving the Covid-19 payment had risen to 10,579. This is a payment of $490 a week for 12 weeks for fulltime workers who lose their job due to the pandemic.

The number of people on a Jobseeker Support benefit also rose compared to the week before, after falling for the previous two weeks as people transferred to the Covid-19 payment.

Over the four weeks to June 26, an additional 11,500 people had sought income support from the Jobseeker Support benefit or the Covid-19 payment.

‘‘The continued slow rise of people accessing Jobseeker Support or [Covid-19] payments shows that the Government’s support for workers is keeping more people employed than many initially feared,’’ said economist Brad Olsen, of Infometrics.

‘‘In total, 1.71 million jobs have been covered by the wage subsidy, which has given businesses the space to determine how to adjust their business operations.

‘‘Job losses are still mounting, but New Zealand has so far avoided the incredible spikes in unemployment that other countries have seen.

‘‘We aren’t out of the woods yet, with a rising number of people accessing support each week, and there are still many people that are technically still employed, but who still face the potential of losing a job as businesses reassess economic conditions,’’ Olsen said.

He said there was ‘‘cautious optimism’’ about the employment market.

Data this week from Seek showed job advertisements were at 57 per cent of prepandemic levels.

‘‘With so much Government support still in play, there’s still a large uncertainty hanging over the New Zealand economy moving forward. But, for now, this cautious optimism remains, even as overseas news continues to be dire.’’