The Prime Minister is back from his holiday and insists the economy has turned a corner.
But it's not showing in the unemployment data. June 2025 benefit data is just out (scroll down).
All benefits are up 6.6 percent on June 2024. Jobseeker is up 10 percent year on year.
Significantly, the rise in those people on a Jobseeker benefit due to a health or disability condition has increased by 15.4 percent. That points to a health system that is continuing to under-perform.
Talking to Heather du Plessis-Allan on NewstalkZB this morning Christopher Luxon said that his party is trying to pull NZ out of a recession worse than any since 1991 - he reiterated this minutes later saying the recession is the worst since the early 1990s and is worse than the GFC.
This is his new line. Watch out for it.
This is an adjustment - a new explanation - because the economy is not improving anywhere near as fast as he had hoped or it needs to.
At half-time National is struggling to make a real difference to voter's lives.
That's what the polls are saying.
New Zealand needs him to do better. Because another innings for Labour, with the Greens and Te Pati Maori, would be a disaster.
Source: https://www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/statistics/monthly-reporting/
