Youth unemployment and rising costs push young New Zealanders to Australia – The Economy of Everything

With youth unemployment in double digits and economists downbeat on the prospects for improvement in the coming months, are we facing another wave of Kiwis departing for Australia?

The latest immigration data had suggested the brain drain of the past two years was starting to ease. But that was before the Iran war and oil shock rocked business confidence and sent economists scrambling to downgrade their forecasts.

Most see the topline unemployment rate rising this year from the current 5.3% to somewhere between 5.5% and 5.8%.

In the Economy of Everything podcast this week Tamsyn Parker and Liam Dann take a look at the appeal of Australia, the current state of its economy...and why it is just so much richer.

“We were basically just starting to see things coming right,” Dann says.

“There was a hope that that 5.3% might have been the peak for unemployment, but we know it isn’t going to be.”

Youth unemployment is now around 20% in Auckland.

“It’s quite demoralising,” Parker says.

“A lot of my daughter’s friends have been applying for jobs, some of them have been applying for jobs for three years now, just trying to get a part-time job.”

Nationally, the number of young people not in education, employment or training (the NEET rate) is rising.

This was quite high during the past few years of high unemployment because kids were realising there were no jobs and they were going into training courses, Dann says.

“What I think’s happening is that we’ve still got high unemployment two years later, they’re coming out and there’s no job.”

“So do you endlessly keep training, racking up debt? Well, that’s not a good option, and that’s where they’re starting to look around and go, Well, gee, do I head for Australia?”

Australia currently has an unemployment rate of just 4.3%, although inflation and interest rates are higher.

“It’s tempting, right? Better pay, the unemployment rate there is quite a lot lower,” Parker says.

“I mean, tough for the parents, great opportunity if you’re young. I guess that means we’re all going to have to start saving up to visit our kids in Aussie.”

Listen to the full episode for the full conversation.

The Economy of Everything is available on the iHeart app or wherever you get your podcasts.

The series is hosted by Liam Dann, business editor-at-large and Tamsyn Parker, business editor for the NZ Herald. Thanks to CMC Markets.