Ashburton councillors blame ‘entitled young people’ for labour shortage

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

From local democracy reporter Adam Burns:
Some Ashburton councillors have had a crack at “entitled young people” in response to the district's labour shortage headaches.

The offensive was sparked by a reported swell in the number of people on employment support in Mid-Canterbury, despite employers throughout the district crying out for staff.

A glaring disconnect between a rise in the number of people receiving job seeker support and the numerous open vacancies sparked questions at Wednesday’s council meeting around the transition from unemployment into work.

A report on Ashburton's economy was presented on the meeting held via Zoom, which attempted to unpack the district's labour market issues with a 33.8 per cent rise in the number of people on benefits over the past quarter.

Eastern Ward councillor Lynette Lovett believed the issue centred around the poor attitudes of youngsters who were ill-equipped for the realities of the workplace.

“Today they're the entitled group some of these young ones,” she said.

“Schools need to talk about work ethics and what's expected.

“You only need to go out and talk to the farming community who are employing these young kids ... they're only there for a week because they go out boozing midweek and then want time off ... life becomes too hard.”

Western Ward councillor Rodger Letham added it was a “parenting and education” problem and not a matter for local government.

Urban ward councillor Carolyn Cameron disputed the remarks and said the council was obliged to scrutinise the problem.

“We have to acknowledge the Local Government Act, which suggests we look after our four wellbeings including social and economic, which is obviously impacted by youth unemployment.”

Recent figures from Statistics NZ showed about 1100 people in the district between the ages of 16 and 24 were not in any form of employment, education or training.

Ashburton mayor Neil Brown suggested the number of young people in this category who were unemployed was about 20 per cent.

Nearly 750 people in Mid-Canterbury are registered as job seekers by the Ministry of Social Development.