Good on ya brave Dave

A job provides more than money. HAVING a job is about so much more than paying the bills.

Okay, if you can't afford to feed the kids and keep a roof over your head, then you can argue that having paid employment is ALL about paying the bills. However, phrases such as "the dignity of labour" and "a job well done" - quaint aphorisms though they may be - weren't coined by accident.

A job provides more than money. It offers self-esteem; it gives a feeling of worth; it grows confidence - and those are things you can't put a price on.

So one can understand why Dave Gates has summoned up the guts to stand on the corner of Victoria Ave and Taupo Quay wearing a sandwich board in his bid to get work. We featured Dave in yesterday's Chronicle. He presented an image that could provoke mixed reactions. On the one hand, what does it say about our society that a man feels compelled to try such a stunt; but one also has to say "Good on ya, brave fulla - and all the best."

He could also have provoked mixed reactions among passers-by, but fortunately there seemed to be no derision, only words, waves and toots of support.

New Zealand has an official unemployment rate of 6.9 per cent, a figure based on the number of people registered as actively looking for a job. That figure has been as high as 11.2 per cent and as low as 3.5 per cent.

Of course, politicians will argue that the figures are inaccurate and are massaged to reflect well on any incumbent government. Those same politicians will have any number of schemes for reducing the painful jobless total, each claiming they can out-job-create their rivals. Those same politicians all have jobs ... quite well-paid ones, in fact.

I lost my job a couple of years ago; it was not a pleasant experience. I got lucky - I found a job in Wanganui. Let's hope Dave gets lucky, too.