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.

Local Government NZ, youth worker welcome policy

The policy has drawn praise from both the Mayors Taskforce for Jobs (MTFJ) and Local Government New Zealand.

MTFJ chair, Gore mayor Ben Bell, says youth unemployment was rising and it was good to see the issue getting serious attention this election.

“MTFJ has a proven record of getting young people into work or training. Our funding is tied to results, including whether people stay in work.

“We’ve worked with successive governments for more than two decades and enjoyed strong bipartisan support.

“We welcome any party putting youth employment on the agenda and look forward to seeing how all parties plan to tackle it.”

Local Government New Zealand President Rehette Stoltz said the proposal recognised that local communities were best placed to deliver local results.

“When local solutions come with the funding to deliver them, we get better outcomes for the people we serve.

“LGNZ is committed to working in partnership with the new Government to tackle the issues that are important to New Zealand.”

Youth worker Aaron Hendry, from organisation Kick Back, said young people want to work, but do not have the opportunities to do so.

"Previous policies that punch down on young people and punish them for the circumstances they're in are not helpful and are making things worse. Policies like this that really provide support, meaningful support to young people, is exactly what we need."

Hendry described unemployment among those aged 16 to 24 as being at "crisis point".

"Young people want to work, they want employment, they have goals, they have aspirations, they want to thrive.

"If we're going to support our young people in this country, then we need to provide them with opportunities and we need to provide them the support that they need to thrive.

"Often, it [work] is the first goal that they have when they walk through our doors. But the opportunities are just not there."

Party co-leader Marama Davidson said community services were short staffed while infrastructure and nature needed 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."