38,000 unemployed under National

The latest Household Labour Force Survey was released today, showing a significant post-election increase in unemployment. There are now 143,000 people without jobs - 38,000 more than when National came to power. And this is what they call "making progress"...

Meanwhile, from its press release, its clear that the supposedly neutral Department of Statistics is desperately looking for a positive spin on this terrible news. But the blunt fact is that ten thousand more people are out of work than last quarter, and facing poverty as a result. And with National having cut access to assistance from WINZ, they've basically been abandoned to the market.

(Meanwhile, delving into the tables, there's a significant and sustained increase in unemployment in the MELAA - Middle Eastern/Latin American/African - group in between 2012 and 2014, a period in which the trend for every other ethnic group has been downwards. Which looks like systematic discrimination...)