Our big concern is jobs

Anna Wallis Photo/File

There should be one thing uppermost in our minds this year and that's jobs.

Local jobs.

The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research, among others, believes a spurt of growth is on the cards. Its latest Consensus Forecasts estimate growth will pick up from 2.8 per cent in the March 2014 year to 3.1 per cent the following year. Economic growth will be broad-based across household spending, investment and exports, states NZIER.

But the big question for this year is Wanganui's participation in the recovery.

Prime Minister John Key was in the region on Friday and hopefully he got some idea of what is going on here.

It is essential people, and especially Wanganui's young people, find work.

The number of people receiving benefits has jumped in the past three months by more than 580 people and, while people may find work, it is often part-time or casual. Some of the jump can be put down to students claiming hardship benefit at the end of the study year, according to Social Development Minister Paula Bennett, but that does not account for all of the leap, and we don't yet know if it is a trend. We do know anecdotally that it can be difficult to get the unemployment benefit, again particularly for young people.

Whanganui People's Centre Advocacy Service spokesman Gary Reid, in a story in the Chronicle yesterday, hammered home the point that the recovery will be real in this region when more people start getting jobs.

Jobs mean a lot more than money and household spending and burgeoning businesses.

To those employed they mean pride, security, discipline and a place to go and something constructive to do every day.

If New Zealand is going to be the "rock star" economy of 2014, Wanganui needs to be at least a back-up singer in the gig.