I remember someone trying to explain unemployment to a senior person some time in the 1980s. They were puzzled and asked, “Is all the work done?”
No, in my opinion all the work is not yet done. Consider the terrible effects of recent flooding. People in Tasman, Nelson, Northland, Gisborne and Coromandel need assistance digging out their orchards, houses, roads and rivers. There’s a work scheme all on its own.
Yet leaving school without having any chance of a job is the reality for some 70,000 unemployed young people aged 15-24. It’s a national disaster with long-term ramifications for this country’s future hopes and prosperity. It’s essential all efforts are taken to support young people and their future.
Twenty-five years ago, a group of seven mayors responded to a challenge by community activist Vivian Hutchinson to adopt a “social goal” of having everybody in New Zealand under 25 either in work or training.
Ministers Steve Maharey and Jim Anderton jumped at the opportunity to partner with local mayors and then-head of the Ministry of Social Development Peter Hughes was assigned to help with the project.
The Mayors Taskforce for Jobs initially focused on trade training, which varied from city to town, depending on local opportunities. Since 2000, it has grown into a network of large- and small-town mayors from North Cape to Bluff, with thousands of young people now helped by their local community to find work. From 2019 to August 2024, more than 6400 young people were found jobs. A report by ImpactLab last year found the programme returns $5.60 in value for every $1 invested.
In Christchurch, we operated through Canterbury Development Corporation. As mayor, I was tasked with bringing together the manufacturers’ association, employers, unions, contractors, the construction industry and our local polytech. We all worked on where job opportunities were or could be created. We faced thousands of under-25s out of work. We got the number down to 100 who weren’t in work or training. It was challenging but rewarding work.
Mayors of all different political persuasions had different ways around the country of focusing on the task, but MSD worked closely everywhere and together we achieved spectacular local outcomes. It really was a win-win situation for young people, their families and for employers.
Imagine being under 25 with no work to go to. Online temptations and ready access to drugs begin to fill the vacuum in young lives. When young people go off the rails because they haven’t a job, we readily find over $100,000 a year to keep them in jail. Or, to prove how tough we are as adults, we fund boot camps, which make things worse.
I’m challenging all sectors to address our youth being left to rot. Central and local government must collaborate on employment and training schemes in partnership with potential local employers. These employers need subsidies, as we had in the past. Wouldn’t it be better to redirect money spent on jailing young people into work schemes that offer hope and a long-term involvement in local communities?
Young people could learn the discipline of getting up every day to have somewhere to go and something to do with others, young and old. With proper training and supervision, the skills they develop could set them up for long-term work.
Many of the jobs of the future haven’t been invented yet. Our challenge as a decent society is to imaginatively offer hope and invest in our young people. The Mayors Taskforce for Jobs is a proven vehicle to achieve this.
Garry Moore was mayor of Christchurch from 1998 to 2007 and inaugural chair of the Mayors Taskforce for Jobs.
