Qualified workers downgrade to get job

Cherie Taylor | 8th February 2010

Highly qualified workers in Rotorua are downgrading their careers just to get work as new figures show the number of jobless in the district has nearly doubled.

Latest Ministry of Social Development figures show that in December last year there were 1403 people in Rotorua receiving the unemployment benefit, compared with 781 in December 2008.

However, there are still 800 fewer people receiving the unemployment benefit than there were in December 2004 when there were 2160 on the dole.

Rotorua employment agencies are finding more people registering with them as they hunt for jobs.

Angelique Tizard, Personnel Resources/Temp Resources team leader, said many of them were prepared to take on lower paid jobs if they hadn't found work.

People who were previously higher paid personal assistants and executive officers were willing to take on reception work - just to get some money coming in, she said.

"We are noticing, as time goes on, people are looking more desperate. They are getting to the stage they need money and are willing to do just about anything," she said.

However, she believed things were slowly picking up and advised people to "hang in there" or take temporary work in the meantime.

Rotorua art teacher Amy Evans has struggled to find a permanent job after returning from England in October last year. "I actually thought I would get a job just like that. I was surprised."

Mrs Evans had been in the UK with her husband, Andy, for almost two years. Prior to that, she was an art teacher at Western Heights High School for six years.

She thought given her experience not only in New Zealand but also overseas she would have easily been able to get a job when the couple returned to Rotorua.

Instead, she can only find work as a relief teacher and spent the school holidays working at a cafe.

Rotorua-based Labour MP Steve Chadwick said the National Government was promoting that the recession was over and there was a brighter future ahead for all but unemployment figures were not dropping.

"We can talk about the recession being over but unemployment is continuing to rise, especially Maori unemployment," she said. "There needs to be new thinking with an economic push to get work."

Rotorua MP Todd McClay said the rise in unemployment over the past year was a direct result of the recession. He estimates the number of jobless will continue to rise in the short term.

"Unemployment often lags in a recession. It starts to go up some time after a recession hits and reduces more slowly after economies start to grow."

Local business confidence was on the rise, which would ultimately result in job stimulation, Mr McClay said.

"In particular I expect forestry and tourism to have a better year," he said.

- additional reporting by Abigail Hartevelt