Cash for jobs plan targets over-40s

Job subsidies are likely to be among new policies to get job-seekers aged over 40 back to work.

Work and Income is expected to announce the policies within two months.

Social Development Minister Steve Maharey said mature job-seekers would become a priority group for Work and Income and the agency would be able to offer employers "concrete support so they will hire an older worker".

Census figures released this month show mature unemployment levels had eased in the past six years, but only 45 per cent of New Zealanders aged 55 to 64 were in full-time work.

Mr Maharey said job-seekers over 40 had become more likely than other age groups to have low educational qualifications and to be long-term unemployed. He admitted the Government had not done enough for them, but added that after 18 months of pilots and studies it was time to act.

Work and Income had learned that to get mature workers into jobs it was vital to break down employers' prejudices and offer them encouragement. That could extend to subsidies, where a mature worker's benefit would be paid to employers.

Mr Maharey told the Weekend Herald he had met the employment commissioner, Ray Smith, two weeks ago and told him "I don't want more pilots. I don't want more thinking. I just want to be able to say to mature workers ... yes, things have got better."

Within "a matter of weeks" regional employment commissioners will be presented with plans for combating mature unemployment so "we can start providing them with funding", Mr Maharey said.

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