Pitched as the answer for young people "losing hope after receiving hundreds of job rejections", the Green Party's youth jobs guarantee would offer every 16 to 24-year-old who has been out of work for six months a route into work, training or study.

📋 Greens: Youth jobs guarantee, October 2026 →

What it does

• Guarantees every 16 to 24-year-old who has been out of work for six months a pathway into education, training or a new job.
• Sets up a Jobs for Young People pilot, modelled on the Covid-era Jobs for Nature scheme, with work in councils, iwi, businesses, non-profits and the public sector.
• Scales up funding for the Mayors Taskforce for Jobs across all 67 councils, with a target of getting 32,000 young people into local jobs.
• Requires every job to be additional, so no existing worker is replaced. The NZ Herald reported wage subsidies would cover public sector and NGO jobs, where the party expects about 95% of placements, but not private sector jobs.
• Costs $4.9 billion over four years on the party's estimate, RNZ reported.

The debate

• Co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick called youth unemployment "a ticking time bomb", and the Herald cited NZIER figures putting unemployment among 15 to 19-year-olds at 25.3%.
• Mayors Taskforce for Jobs chair Ben Bell welcomed any party putting youth employment on the agenda, and Local Government New Zealand president Rehette Stoltz said local communities were best placed to deliver local results.
• The scheme depends on the Greens' wider tax plan. Newsroom has reported that most Green promises rest on the party's wealth tax, which Labour leader Chris Hipkins has ruled out.