Source: NZCTU
The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi welcomes the Green Party’s Youth Jobs Guarantee, which would give every 16- to 24-year-old who has been out of work for six months a pathway into a local job.
“Young people are being locked out of work at one of the most important stages of their lives. When the job market is failing a generation, government has a responsibility to step in, and that is exactly what this policy does,” says Sandra Grey, NZCTU President.
“Since the last election, the youth unemployment rate has climbed from 10.8 percent to 16.6 percent. That’s around 24,600 more young people out of work than at the end of 2023, an increase of more than 50 percent.
“Young Māori and Pasifika workers are being hit hardest, with youth unemployment rates of 24.6 percent and 26.5 percent.
“The number of young people not in employment, education, or training has grown by 17,700 under Luxon’s Government, up 23.1 percent, with the NEET rate rising from 11.7 percent to 13.8 percent. Time spent out of work and study early in life can follow young people for years, with lower pay and fewer opportunities.
“Luxon’s Government has responded by blaming young people,” says Grey. “They’re tightening benefit sanctions and means-testing 18- and 19-year-olds on their parents’ income instead of creating the conditions for job growth.
“Our recent report, Three years of pain, called for direct public and community job creation where the market has failed to provide work. The Greens’ plan does just that by scaling up the Mayors’ Taskforce for Jobs across all 67 councils to get 32,000 young people into local work and building on the proven success of Jobs for Nature.
“Crucially, every job under the guarantee must be additional, so no young person will be used to replace an existing worker. This is about creating new, decent work not undercutting the jobs people already have.
“There is a lot of work that needs doing: maintaining our infrastructure, restoring our environment, and staffing our community services. Under this plan, people in each community decide what that work is.
“Young workers deserve a government that backs them into good jobs, not one that sits back while unemployment climbs.”
Original source: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/10/12/greens-youth-jobs-guarantee-is-the-action-young-workers-need-nzctu/