GIGO

Unemployment

I recently did a radio opinion piece on the problem of the "undeserving" unemployed -- those people who have initiative, education and experience, but who are barred from training schemes and job creation programmes because of those very qualities.

Most of our efforts at helping the unemployed as a group are targeted at aiding those who are worst off, the ones with little in the way of education and often no work experience. While this needs to be done, it seems to have resulted in the ironic situation that those who do have something to offer are penalised for it. Gain a couple of passes in School C or -- worse yet -- a degree, and you don't qualify for training programmes. Have even a short amount of work in your background, and you can't have a job subsidy. I believe that we are in danger of exacerbating our unemployment problem by ignoring these apparently undeserving unemployed. By letting their education or training become outdated and by rejecting their attempts at initiative we serve only to produce yet more long-term unemployed and unemployables.

I believe that we need to divert some resources towards addressing the needs of these undeserving unemployed. Find the most employable of the unemployed and get them working again. Many of these people need only a slight boost to get back into work, but that boost is vital. Why not offer employers similar job creation schemes for skilled workers as are offered for manual workers? Why not look at the needs of university graduates as much as the needs of the young school leaver?

It need cost no more to subsidise a computer engineer or biotechnologist than a factory worker. Ultimately those people will also pay higher taxes, returning more to the public coffers which then can go towards further job schemes and training assistance for everyone else.

You produce a better economy which can do more to address the basic problems which have resulted in a mass of unmotivated, untrained people. You get more money, you get more people working and off the unemployment rolls, you reward initiative and education. It makes sense to me and, given the response I've had to the original radio piece, it makes sense to others.

Vicki Hyde is the editor of New Zealand Science Monthly.