We're very good at talking about the need for jobs, but actually creating a climate that assists, promotes and drives jobs into existence requires ongoing government commitment and sustained action.
We insist that everyone should be working to support their families but New Zealand lags well behind other OECD countries in economic growth. And this was before the global financial crisis.
Apprenticeships faded out at least 20 years ago but are now thankfully back on the scene.
Too late for some. Young New Zealanders aged between 18-24 years need work now; they are the new poor.
But look at the increase in the numbers of 25-45 year olds finding themselves without permanent jobs.
Some have retrained and still can't get work. This is when they start to look across the Tasman. You can't blame them.
Motivated people don't hang around and even those without marketable skills believe they stand a better chance of finding work in Australia.
The new Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has the task of fixing this.
They will encourage businesses to learn well, learn quickly and learn continuously.
It wants to build a more competitive economy where a culture of innovation for all businesses will see us move to become a nation of job-makers rather than just job takers.
Perhaps it might have been better for the new Ministry to have at least a year under its belt before the Welfare Reforms got under way.
I agree that both are important for New Zealand's future but, if the goal of welfare reform is to get beneficiaries into work, then meaningful jobs must be available now.
Unemployed people I spoke with this week said they would work if they could get a job.
They particularly want full-time work. Some have lost count of how many jobs they have applied for. And with the restructuring of some government departments the PSA expects around 3000 public servants to be looking for jobs.
So the ministry, accountable to the Hon Steven Joyce, is taking a co-ordinated approach to training, employment creation and business development and growth. It will absorb the functions of the Ministry of Economic Development, Department of Labour, Ministry of Science and Innovation, and the Department of Building and Housing. It will integrate policies and provide the leadership to map out how best to get New Zealand businesses pumping and workers trained ready for the new jobs when they come on stream.
Creativity and innovation will be key to the ministry's success.
That starts with the work of creative people. And they must be nurtured in our society and workforce.
If creativity is not respected, promoted and rewarded, we will never have a creative society and an innovation culture. This requires us to think differently and to integrate knowledge and skills from different disciplines into new holistic forms of knowledge.
Job markets are requiring more and more knowledge integrators.
Our education system should no longer churn out an over-abundance of narrow specialists. We do have creative people in New Zealand.
These innovators must be assisted to move from the economic margin to the mainstream of business.
The ministry sees innovation as a way to chart the route to a new revitalised economy.
