Summarised by Centrist
Researcher Lindsay Mitchell asks “How big is the growth in Jobseeker benefit receipt in the Wellington region and how does it compare to other regions?”
According to the latest Ministry of Social Development (MSD) data, Wellington’s Jobseeker numbers don’t seem as bad compared to regions like Auckland and Waikato.
But do the numbers add up?
Mitchell’s closer look found the numbers unreliable due to inconsistencies in population data from last year. Specifically, Wellington’s population increase made the Jobseeker percentage look better than it was, while Central’s population decrease made the numbers look worse.
To get a clearer picture, Mitchell recreated the data using numbers adjusted for changes to the population size and found Wellington had a whopping 27% increase in Jobseeker support–the highest of any region.
Although Mitchell notes that, relatively speaking, times were tougher in the early 90s, “That isn’t much consolation to those losing their jobs today but let’s hope that the unavoidable correction to Labour’s six years of over-cooking the economy with borrowed money doesn’t come with too much more pain.”
