2000 PEOPLE APPLY FOR 100 JOBS

Earlier this month the not very bright Paula Bennett was crowing about the so-called drop in unemployment from 7.1 percent to 6 percent.

The media was all too eager to believe the Government hype. TV3, for example, announced 'New Zealand's economic recovery received a boost today with news the official unemployment figures have recorded the largest ever drop for a March quarter.'

TVNZ News, last seen congratulating the Government for its rotten Budget, was equally as enthusiastic.

Newsreader Wendy Petrie described the so-called drop as 'stunning'.

And, according to the corporate economists who dominate the media on occasions like this, the so-called ' record drop' represented a 'turning point' for the economy.

Said ASB chief economist Chris Tennent-Brown: 'It's just a really good step in the right direction to see the labour market looking reasonably healthy compared to our expectations.'

At the risk of sounding immodest, I think I was one of a just a handful of people who did not believe the hype. I wrote:

But the true unemployment rate is much higher than the official rate.

A real count of real people reveals what most people know from their own everyday experience - people are doing it hard trying to find work

If you look at Statistics NZ's own figures, the unadjusted jobless figure has risen by over 38,000 to 263,000.'

I think the 'minority view' that I and others expressed at the time has been confirmed as the correct one by the news that over 2000 people have applied for just 100 jobs at the new Bunnings Warehouse. in Dunedin.

Store manager Mat Jung told the Otago Daily Times; 'I've got a pile of applications five inches thick sitting on my desk, still waiting to be looked at.'

Perhaps someone at TVNZ or TV3 would now like to explain why 2000 people lined up for 100 minimum wage jobs if there has indeed been such a 'stunning' drop in unemployment.