41,000 out of work under National

The Household Labour Force Survey is out, and while it shows a reduction in unemployment, the jobless tally is still at an appalling 6.2%. There are still 141,000 unemployed - 41,000 more than when National took office.

In last year's Budget, National predicted unemployment would have dropped to 5.7% [PDF, p. 3], with a downside scenario [PDF, p. 4] of 6%. They've failed to meet even that. And yet somehow this failure is being presented as positive by the government.

(And while we're on the subject of National's nonsensical economic projections: they also expected wages to increase by 3.8% in the March year. The actual figure was 2.1%. That 1.7% difference is an $860 million hole in the government's books. Which is going to mean more cuts to meet their arbitrary political surplus target...)

Again, this is not what economic success looks like. It is a picture of economic failure. And with National committed to permanent austerity, it is unlikely to get better any time soon.