Jennifer Mills: Employment Specialist on the rise in people on the Jobseeker benefit

There’s a belief more redundancies are causing a rise in work ready Jobseekers. 

The Ministry of Social Development's September figures show a yearly increase of 29,000 people on a main benefit, a rise of 12%.  

Minister Louise Upston describes rising unemployment as a consequence of years of high inflation, high government spending, and economic recession. 

Employment specialist Jennifer Mills told Ryan Bridge there's also been a 33% drop in job advertisements in the last quarter, which shows there's not enough jobs. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
New data out this morning from the Ministry of Social Development.
This is in the New Zealand Herald from MSD shows
that between September twenty three September twenty four, the number
of people getting the job seeker work Ready payment twelve thousand,
three hundred increase. That's eleven point eight percent. Interestingly, and
this is how the government will try and spin it.

(00:22):
More recent month on month data shows that the tide
is starting to turn back the other way for job
sec work ready numbers that are down by three hundred
people zero point two percent. That's month on month, So
they're saying, yes, year on year this looks bad, but
month on month, we think we have reached the peak. However,
we're going to go to Jennifer Mills, employment specialist at

(00:42):
Jennifer Mills and Associates, for her take on this this morning. Jennifer,
good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Good morning. How are you Ryan?

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Very well? Thank you, nice to hear your voice. Who
are you.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Seeing look at I was just thinking Ryan while I
was waiting. This is the first time that I've been
on your show and it's the first time we've caught
up since your previous role. So nice to be involved.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Nice to have you on. Tell me who are you
seen being made redundant at the moment.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Well, just before I look at who we, I think
our private practice experience is consistent with for September figures.
So we had a real spike in structuring instructions up
to the annualized June period. And it was the sort

(01:31):
of redundancies which were designed to cut labor costs. So
it was downsizing simple disestablishment of positions and it wasn't
the nice to have maximizing synergy type redundancies. So employers
were cutting costs. But interestingly, and this is the part
that's consistent with the data, since winter, we have seen

(01:52):
a decline in the number of restructuring instructions. And I
do wonder whether employers have now got to the point
where they've done everything they can from a cost labor
cutting perspective to you know, get the business right, and
now they're hunkering down. And I also wonder whether there

(02:16):
is an impact from the restructuring or recruitment I should
say freeze. So employers have completed their restructuring and now
they're in a holding pattern and there's very much a
freeze on recruitment and you may have seen also, Ryan,
that there's been a drop by thirty three percent in

(02:37):
job advertisements being posted coming up to that June twenty
twenty four quarter period. And you know, that's really telling.
I think that they're just aren't the jobs.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
It's really interesting that what you're seeing marries up with
what we're hearing here from this data. Can you just
very quickly before we go the clients that you see
who have been made redundant in the last couple of
months or even in the last couple of years, do
they have savings to go and live off. Do they
have other work that they have managed to pick up.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
No, So it's pretty pretty dire for a large group
of the people who we see are being made redundant.
Most are party to individual employment agreements. They don't have
an entitlement to redundancy compensation because there's no statutory right
to it in this country. Employers are doing the right

(03:33):
thing as best they can, and they are paying x
grasher payments to soften the blow, but we really, you know,
we do see employees being made redundant without savings, with
very little buffer, and it's excuse me, it's very difficult
for them to find and secure alternative employment, and that's
what we're seeing in the annualized results to September. There

(03:57):
is certainly then and an increase on the tenure and
your average as well, which is I guess by design
by the Reserve Bank. But people are doing it tough.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
Yeah, it's what Bryan, It's what we need. It's what
we needed. Is what's what we ask for? Really, isn't
it as well in terms of taming inflation? But not
easy for those individuals who are affected. Jennifer Mills, thank
you very much for your time this morning, and great
to have you back on our show, any show.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
Really.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
I think you're great. Jennifer Mills, employment specialist at Jennifer
Mills and Associates. For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge,
listen live to News Talks it be from five am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.