Right now, about one in seven New Zealanders aged 15 to 24 are not in employment, education or training — NEETs, if you like jargon.
And that number has been climbing, as young people are about three times more likely to be out of work than the wider working-age population, and it’s smaller rural districts feeling it hardest.
In some parts of the country, the number of disengaged young people has jumped by more than a third in a single year.
It may be an unpopular take, but I don’t believe the work has suddenly vanished; around our district there’s still plenty that needs doing, and plenty of employers who’d take on a willing young person tomorrow.
What seems to be missing is the support that gets them there.
Back in the day, getting a job straight out of school was a lot easier than it is now, not because young people were any different, but because someone helped with the CV — not AI — and parents made sure they were up, out the door and dropped off for the interview.
Does the problem sit with parents? I don’t think this is a fair conclusion either, as with the cost of living what it is, most households now need both parents working just to keep the lights on.
There is less time, and less spare energy, for the patient, unglamorous business of guiding a teenager into work. It’s nobody’s fault really, it’s just how stretched modern life has become.
Where do you think the problem lies? And more importantly, what do you think the solution could be? All I know is that rather than pointing fingers at who should be responsible, we can all agree that it is unacceptable one in seven of our future workforce is essentially missing and we all need to find a way to get people working.
