Under the Child Poverty Reduction Act 2018 the Government Statistician is required to define persistent child poverty before 1 July 2025.

Government Statistician and Stats NZ Chief Executive Mark Sowden has defined persistent child poverty as ‘children living in households with less than 60% of the median household equivalised disposable income before housing costs are deducted (relative rate), in the current year and for at least 2 of the previous 3 years'. Read more

Data shows the only statistics growing regarding youth employment, training and education are those recording their unemployment and disengagement from learning.

Unrewarding start

In the year to March 2024, Radio NZ says 12.4 percent of 15 to 24-year olds were not in employment, education or training (NEET). Of these, 14.2 percent were female.

These data indicate a marked increase from those reported at the end of March 2023. At that time, 10.9 percent of young people were in the NEET group; of those, 11.5 percent were young women.

For those aged 20 to 24, the rate was significantly higher this year than last. Over 18 percent of women in this age bracket were in the NEET group, up 27 percent year-on-year.

A Wellington mother whose now 21-year-old has lived on the benefit for the past three years wants more for him.

"Ultimately I really want them to get into something engaging and enriching. I want them to have a pathway to independence, to going flatting" she says.

Other parents share her aims.

Regional variation

The worst place to be if you're a young NEET is Northland.

It had the highest NEET rate at the end of March this year at 16.3 percent of people aged 15 to 24. The Bay of Plenty is next in line at 16.2 percent says Craig Renney, Council of Trade Unions policy director and economist.

Renney is concerned.

He says that young people in this situation are facing a potential "huge challenge" throughout their lives. Wage and employment scarring can happen when their labour market prospects deteriorate as a direct result of an initial spell of unemployment

"The longer they spend NEET, the worse the labour market outcomes tend to be for those people."

Renney says it's possible that young women's unemployment is a reflection of what's happening in the industries they had typically been employed in.

"We know construction is struggling, manufacturing is struggling but perhaps not as much as high street retail. Perhaps not as much as the more female-dominated industries."

Apprenticeships are often shed during downturns, Renney observes.

"Then when the upswing comes as inevitably as the downswing, and we suddenly need apprentices, we don't have any."

What to do

Helping NEET young people to stay in New Zealand and use or develop their skills here is important Renney says.

"Do they [the ones with skills] stay in-country? If they've got skills and not in education, employment or training they might say 'stuff this I'm going to Oz' and they don't come back. That's a permanent loss on that side.

"The longer you're out of employment the harder it is to get back in, that's why interventions at that point in life are so vital."

Source

• RNZ

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The Government has substantially increased benefits, the largest increases since the 1940s, but households continue to face soaring prices for basic essentials - a phenomenon National says means people are getting "pummelled" and has the Greens calling for an immediate boost to benefits.

"Basic produce has soared in the last year; broccoli up 44%, cauliflower up 53%, kiwifruit up 42% [and] onions up 40%," National's finance spokesperson Nicola Willis said. Read more

While most have at least one or two people they are close to, one per cent of Kiwis aged 15 or over say they have no supportive family or friends, according to research from Statistics NZ.

The New Zealand General Social Survey (NZGSS), conducted over a year, asked almost 9000 respondents whether they had any friends or family who helped and supported them.

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