Labour Market Information

Why is Labour Market Information important?

Since the late 1990’s the labour market in New Zealand has been very tight. Tight labour market conditions have provided many opportunities, particularly for groups who have traditionally been under-represented in the labour market. At the same time, tight labour market conditions have created challenges including widespread skill and labour shortages.

In this context, regular and reliable information about the labour market is becoming increasingly important. In particular, assessing future industry skill and training needs requires awareness of the characteristics of the current and future labour supply for industries, and the projected levels of demand for employment in those industries.

The Household Labour Force Survey

One of the most up to date and comprehensive sources of information about the labour market is the quarterly Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS). The HLFS is conducted by Statistics NZ and asks people a range questions including if they are working, where they work, how many hours they work, and whether they have actively sought work. From the HLFS, New Zealand’s official measures of what is happening in the labour market are generated including the number of people in employment, employment by industry the unemployment rate and the participation rate.

The most recent HLFS results are for the June 2009 quarter and show:

  • The unemployment rate rose from 5.0% to 6.0% during the June 2009 quarter, the largest quarterly increase since the September 1988 quarter. This was largely driven by an increase of 1.5 percentage points in female unemployment.
  • During the June 2009 quarter, the number of people unemployed went up by 20.6% to reach 138,000. During the last 12 months, the number of unemployed rose by 48,000.
  • The number of people employed went down to 2,169,000 in the June 2009 quarter, with full-time employment decreasing by 18,000 and part-time employment up by 7,000. The decrease in employment was driven by female full-time employment, which fell by 16,000. The shift from full-time to part-time employment is reflected in the number of actual hours worked per week, which fell by 1.9% in the June 2009 quarter.
  • In the latest quarter, the labour force participation rate rose by 0.1 percentage points to 68.4%. The female participation rate fell to 62.1%, while the male participation rate rose to 75.2%.
  • Unemployment has increased particularly sharply for Pacific Peoples and, to a lesser extent, Maori over the past year.  The unemployment rate for Pacific Peoples increased from 6.7% in June 2008 to 12.8% in June 2009 while the unemployment rate for Maori increased from 8.1% to 12.6% over the same period.
  • There have been decreases in employment over the past year in most broad industries including Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing (-7%), Transport, Storage & Communication (-5%), Wholesale & Retail Trade (-3%), Manufacturing (-2%), and other services (-1%). Offsetting these decreases were employment growth over the same period in Health & Community Servies (9%), and modest increases of less than 1% each in Construction, Education, and Business and Financial Services.

More Labour Market Information

Further information about the labour market is available from a range of sources, including:

ITF analysis

We have produced an analysis of the key economic and social factors that affect skills:

Summary: Social and Economic Environment (203KB)

We also produce a research report with Business NZ on skills and training in New Zealand:

Skills and Training Survey 2003 (531KB)

Useful labour market data

Enterprise and Employee Size Data - NZ... (28KB) - basic data on the size of New Zealand enterprises in 2006.

Enterprises by Industry and Size - NZ 2006 (38KB) - numbers of enterprises by industry in 2006 (including numbers of small enterprises).

Employees by Industry and Enterprise Size - NZ... (37(37KB)) - numbers of employees by industry in 2006 (including numbers in small businesses).

NZ Labour Market Overview - the Skills... (1292KB) - NZ labour market statistical overview and the skills challenge. A Powerpoint Presentation version is also available: NZ Labour Market Overview - the Skills... (1623KB)

Department of Labour analysis and reports

The Department of Labour produces a wide range of labour market information of relevance to skill development, including:

In addition the Department provides a good selection of Labour Market Analysis Tools, including tools for analysing occupations and regional industry trends.

 

Statistics NZ data and reports

Stats NZ has a number of sets of data of relavance to skills and the labour market:


Tertiary Education Commission statistics and reports


Ministry of Education statistics and reports

 

Skills by Industry and Sector

Many ITOs have published reports on the skills and labour market issues facing their industries. There have also been a number of reports by government and other sector groups on skills and labour market issues.

Check the relevant ITO's website for detailed reports for individual industries. Some other examples are noted below: