Youth work scheme extended in provinces with jobless Maori

A work scheme for unemployed young people has been extended until the end of next year in four provincial areas with high Maori youth unemployment.

Northland, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne/Hawkes Bay and the Waikato will get $17.4 million to place 1500 young people in the Community Max scheme, which provides the full costs for non-profit groups to pay a young person the minimum wage for 30 hours a week for six months.

But regions with much higher unemployment than the Waikato, including Auckland, will miss out.

Last month's Budget did not provide any funding for the scheme, which started last August as a short-term response to the recession and closed in February when the $40 million budget for the allocated 3000 places ran out.

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett announced an extra $16.7 million in the Budget to provide partial job subsidies for an extra 6000 young people under the "Job Ops" scheme, but said there was no more money for Community Max.

"It was a very expensive scheme and unfortunately we have to make some hard decisions," she said then.

Yesterday her associate minister, Tariana Turia, said Ms Bennetthad found some unspent money elsewhere in her budget and Prime Minister John Key had found additional money to revive Community Max.

There were more businesses which could use Job Ops in urban areas such as Auckland, but rural areas depended more on community groups such as marae, Ms Turia said.

"So while it's gone to the Waikato, the focus will be more on rural areas rather than Hamilton."

Ms Bennett's office said 57 per cent of young people employed under Community Max have been Maori, with 20 per cent European, 10 per cent Pasifika and 13 per cent from other ethnicities.

The Maori share reached 86 per cent in the Bay of Plenty, 83 per cent in Northland, 68 per cent in Gisborne/Hawkes Bay and 62 per cent in the Waikato, and 41 per cent in Auckland.

Ms Bennett said 81 per cent of the young people who completed Community Max programmes by the end of May were still off welfare benefits, with 43 per cent in work or training and the rest caring for children, no longer fit for work or no longer in the district or the country.

OUT OF WORK

Unemployment rates, March:

Northland*: 9.4 per cent

Bay of Plenty*: 8 per cent

Auckland: 7.9 per cent

Manawatu/Wanganui: 7 per cent

Gisborne/Hawkes Bay*: 6.5 per cent

Waikato*: 5.3 per cent

* Regions getting Community Max

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