The number of New Zealanders receiving unemployment benefits has fallen for a fifth consecutive month, Social Development Minister Paula Bennett said Thursday.
"I'm delighted to see nearly 800 fewer people on unemployment benefits since May and 94 percent of that reduction is of young people," said Bennett.
It was the first time the unemployment benefit rate had decreased in the month of June for four years, she said.
The number of people collecting the unemployment benefit was down to 56,264 from a high of 68,369 in January last year, said Bennett.
"Predictions had unemployment benefits rising to about 100,000 post-recession, but we never reached those levels and in fact it has decreased by more than 9,000 in the last nine months," she said.
Young people aged 18 to 24 accounted for almost half of the decrease over the last year.
"Last month 7,800 people went off welfare into work and it's particularly positive that more than 2,700 young people canceled benefits for jobs," Bennett added.
Last month 327,817 New Zealanders were receiving some kind of government benefit.
In the Canterbury region, which has been shaken be a series of earthquakes since September last year, 6,342 people were on unemployment benefits, 962 more than the week before the Feb. 22 quake that killed at least 181 people.
However, since the February quake, total benefit numbers in Canterbury had fallen by 670, she said.
Editor: Mo Hong'e
English.news.cn 2011-07-07 12:49:14 FeedbackPrintRSS
WELLINGTON, July 7 (Xinhua)
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