Jan Tinetti Labour MP

As a Government we're focused on creating jobs, upskilling New Zealanders and supporting more people into work – and the latest figures show that it's paying off.
The country's unemployment rate is at a near-record low and people's incomes are growing at the highest rate since records began. There are now less than 99,000 New Zealanders receiving Jobseeker Work Ready – the first time numbers have dipped below 100,000 since the pandemic began. We've also seen the number of people receiving a main benefit continue to fall year-on-year.
All of these indicators give real reason for us to feel optimistic about the future. Having more people in work, with higher wages, is helping to make both families and our economy strong.
To grow the skilled workforce that New Zealand needs, our Government has been deliberate in supporting more people into education and training. I'm really proud of the fact that more than 200,000 Kiwis have now benefitted from our free apprenticeships and trades training programmes.
When the pandemic hit, we knew that investing in programmes like Apprenticeship Boost, which supports employers keep and take on new apprentices, would be really important. That's because, without them, we risked losing our apprentices and facing a massive skills shortage, that's what happened after the Global Financial Crisis.
So it's great to see that apprenticeships are more than 50 per cent higher than when we came into government, and that we now have 20,000 more construction workers than a year ago. This means we're able to continue delivering better infrastructure and more homes for people around the country.
On top of training more New Zealanders with the skills businesses need, we've also rebalanced our immigration to make it easier for local businesses to fill gaps by hiring highly-skilled people from overseas.
With more people moving off benefit and into work, unemployment at a near-record low, and wages growing, it's clear that our plan is working. Now we need to keep going.