By now the realities of unemployment have been experienced by most students looking for jobs in the last few months yet many people — particularly those whose economic position is secure — refuse to believe that the unemployed are not personally responsible for their plight. Manning a photographic exhibition in the major shopping areas of Wellington fielded comments like, "most of the unemployed can get jobs, all they have to do is try," "a lot of them are lazy and don't want to work," and "If they were willing to shift they would get jobs."

Well the situation is bad. In the two weeks ending January this year unemployment officially rose by 1720 to 28,498 and it is still going up. It is now fairly common knowledge that unemployment is higher than it has been since the 1930's. Those who have lost their jobs are not lazy. Nearly all of the unemployed want them back: in fact this is a prerequisite to survival in the registering process. Most of those now unemployed are unable to shift because of family and financial circumstances. If they could, the only place to go is overseas. Emmigration figures show those that can are leaving.