Unemployment rises to 6.5%

New figures released this week show unemployment rose by half a percent in the September quarter and now stands at 6.5%

There are now 150,000 unemployed, 122,100 workers wanting to work more hours and a total of 254,000 people who are jobless once those discouraged from seeking work are added to the figures.

Maori unemployment is at 14.2 percent, Pacific people at 12.3 percent and youth unemployment (15-19 years) is at 25.1 percent.

Council of Trade Unions secretary Peter Conway called on the Government help unemployed workers by investing in skills training.

"For all the talk that the recession is over, this shows that unemployed workers are continuing to bear the brunt of a recession caused by the global financial crisis."

"More needs to be done to assist these workers."

Labour MP Darien Fenton said the dramatic rise in unemployment showed the urgent need for guaranteed redundancy protections.

"Kiwis are being laid off day in higher numbers and most of them are being left high and dry because they have no redundancy protection and that makes it that much harder to pay their mortgage, feed their family and look for new work.

"Rather than just hoping the recession goes away, the Government needs to actively support people who are hit by job losses - and backing the Redundancy Protection Bill would be a good start."

The Redundancy Protection Bill allows for a minimum redundancy protection of four weeks for the first year of service and two weeks for each year after and is in line with the federal redundancy protections recently introduced in Australia.

For more information about the Redundancy Protection Bill visit www.hardtimes.org.nz