Extending season ticket to fulltime work

When packhouse doors roll down for the year, beneficiary numbers shoot up.
He'll soon be jobless, yet Tremaine Maxwell is among the lucky ones.
Since the year's main kiwifruit pack wound up in June, the 24-year-old father of three has managed to keep a job at Hume Pack-N-Cool as a stacker in the Katikati company's controlled-atmosphere packhouse.
It's a job he knows won't last for much longer - but for the moment he's happy to be off the benefit.
"After this has finished, I'll jump on the dole and go out looking again ... see what comes up," he says
Company chief executive Mark Hume admits he's racked his brain to keep such good employees in work: "It's bloody hard out there for them. I wish I could keep him on all year round, but you just can't."
Mr Hume pushes his workers to upskill as much as they can during the season. It paid off for Abbey Bernie who, since signing up for the main pack in March, has landed a fulltime office job as a cadet. She can handle everything from organising loadouts to human resources work and, if asked, could turn her hand to manning the coolstore fruit grader or stacking crates.
"She suits our industry entirely, and it means we can give her regular work," Mr Hume said.
Those who could be supported through the off-season and show up annually for the main pack without needing to be retrained were just as sought after, he said.
The reality was that most returned to their Winz office, becoming another statistic behind the annual June-to-July leap in Western Bay of Plenty jobless numbers.
This year, that increase was a staggering 18.6 per cent, as the 1086 people registered as unemployed at the end of June surged to 1288 last month.
Mike Bryant, Bay of Plenty's regional commissioner for social development, acknowledged the spike as workers exited seasonal employment into a local job market which could not absorb them.
"We work closely with seasonal employers and the industry to maximise employment opportunities for jobseekers," he said.
"Work and Income and the kiwifruit industry have worked together to apply the Government's policy of jobs for New Zealanders first."
This had seen a drop in overseas labour brought into the region for the March to June kiwifruit season, annually demanding about 9000 workers.
 " ... past experience shows that approximately one-third of seasonally employed workers will take up longer-term employment," Mr Bryant said.
Hume Pack-N-Cool recently advertised fulltime jobs in the Bay of Plenty Times but these were roles for which skilled workers were preferred over seasonal packers.
Hume Pack-N-Cool field manager Greg Wild said: "As I say to a lot of beneficiaries between jobs, if you don't have any skills, then try to get some.
"Workers employed in the main pack from March to June should be able to gain skills then - you sometimes only have to learn enough to do one little job."
Aongatete Coolstores, south of Katikati, also had work going in its controlled-atmosphere packhouses, but hours were unpredictable week-on-week, packhouse manager Clive Exelby said.
"People can often get work one or two days a week, and have their pay subsidised by Winz," he said. "At least that keeps them in the workforce."
He saw the avocado harvest season, which fired up soon after the close of the main kiwifruit pack, as a potential prospect.
But New Zealand Avocado Industry Council chairman John Schnackenberg said the industry's capacity to bridge the labour gap was "minimal". Most orchardists harvested crops themselves or hired skilled contractors for the job.
While Mr Hume believes the horticulture industry has a responsibility to create work for the local jobless, packhouses aren't the only option. The young and unemployed can register for the Community Max scheme, to learn skills and gain work experience that may eventually land them unsubsidised employment.
"Community Max is making a difference in the Bay of Plenty," Mr Bryant said.
"Since its inception, we have had 86 Community Max projects in our region, with eight of those being provided to Western Bay of Plenty young people.
"From those projects, opportunities were provided to 48 young people. Three projects are still currently running in the area."
Doing this while working on projects that benefited the community was an "added bonus" as it connected them with people in their area, he said.
"Community Max is part of the Youth Opportunities package that was announced in August 2009 to tackle youth unemployment. We are finding Job Ops is proving a successful catalyst for local employers to take on young job-seekers they otherwise may not be able to employ."
It had seen 330 Western Bay of Plenty youth move into work.
Mr Bryant cited the New Zealand Defence Force's six-week Limited Services Volunteer motivational training courses as another success story in the fight against unemployment in the Western Bay of Plenty.
This free course for people aged 17 to 25 aims to boost the number of young people entering employment or training by improving their self-discipline, confidence, self-belief, motivation and initiative.
The courses previously were held at Burnham Military Camp in Christchurch but since April have been available three hours' drive away at Hobsonville Airbase in Auckland, as well as at Trentham Military Camp in the Hutt Valley.
Work and Income covers travel costs to and from the courses for participants, who do not have to receive a Winz benefit to be eligible.
Since May, 65 Bay of Plenty young people have attended LSV courses. Thirty of them, including 11 from Tauranga, Greerton and Mount Maunganui, marched out to brighter futures on July 19.
"Ministry of Social Development Staff within the Bay of Plenty region work really hard to help clients move into employment," Mr Bryant said.