Southern social agencies can expect strong and consistent demand as the recession's enduring hangover focuses on the low-skilled unemployed, Methodist Mission chief executive Laura Black says.
Over the next 18 months, more unemployed men in their late 30s and early 40s would need help to cope in the floundering low-skill job market, Mrs Black said yesterday.
"My gut feeling is that we have not seen the worst social effects of the recession, and that we are about to see the follow-through effects on the vulnerable.
I think we are all about to see the worst of it, and I think in the next 18 months we will start to see more and more people in need, and experiencing poor life outcomes."
Those poor life outcomes included physical and mental health issues, poor education and for some, even homelessness.
Mrs Black said more unskilled workers were using social agencies as labouring jobs dried up.
Demand had plateaued at a "very high" 5000 contacts a year - and about half those had more complex problems than they did 18 months ago.
Cuts and caps to education budgets meant low-skilled workers seeking second chance training had fewer chances to enter community education, youth training, and polytechnics or universities.
The mission's 43-place education programme was oversubscribed with 46 participants.
"There is group of people who are disadvantaged by a lack of education, but they are good workers and they were employed as good workers before the recession.
Now, their unemployment rate is in the stratosphere."
Presbyterian Support Otago communication and fundraising director Lisa Wells said it was dealing with more low-skilled unemployed people, more young men and more single parents, who were among those most likely affected by the recession.
Presbyterian Support worked with about 500 people a month.
Numbers plateaued from the end of last year to be as high as they were in the 1990s.
About 30% needed emergency assistance, suggesting nearly a third of all clients were new to the process.
More people paid at least 60% of their income on rent.
More contacts ended with people getting food parcels, rising from 40% in 2007 to 77%.
The working poor were prominent, with the self-employed and contract workers waiting for wages as companies and clients held off on their payments.
