The Green Party says it will guarantee a job for every young New Zealander aged 16 to 24 who has been out of work for six months or more.

The party announced on Sunday that if elected, it would establish a pilot programme called Jobs for Young People, which would provide jobs through iwi, business, the public sector and non-profits.

It would also scale up the Mayors' Taskforce - an existing initiative between local and central government to get young people into work - to get 32,000 young people into work.

Party co-leader Marama Davidson said community services are short staffed while infrastructure and nature need maintenance and renewal.

The Greens would guarantee young people jobs in doing this important work, she said.

"When there is so much real work to be done, it doesn't make sense that our young people are struggling to get by, losing hope after receiving hundreds of job rejections. Thanks to Luxon's Government, there aren't enough jobs for our young people.

"The Green Party will fix this problem head-on, instead of blaming young people, by setting up a Jobs for Young People programme. Because when the market is failing our young people, it's time for the government to step in to support them."

Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick called unemployment among young people "a ticking time bomb".

"You can't punish people into ghost jobs. We can instead connect people out of work with work that so clearly needs to be done."