• Unemployment
• Employment
• Median hourly earnings
• Workplace injury claims
• Satisfaction with work-life balance

Unemployment

Relevance

This is a key indicator of labour market outcomes and the lack of access to employment. The unemployment rate is an important reflection of overall economic conditions and may give some sense of the ease with which people are able to move into employment.

Current level and trends

In 2004, 3.9 percent of the labour force (or 82,000 people) were unemployed and actively seeking work. The unemployment rate has declined steadily since 1998 and is considerably lower than the peak rate of 10.4 percent in 1992 (176,000 people unemployed). The 2004 unemployment rate was just under the rate of 4.1 percent in 1986 when records began (70,000 people unemployed).

In 2004, 23 percent of the surveyed unemployed who specified their duration of unemployment had been unemployed for a continuous period of six months or more, a decline from 27 percent in 2003. The 2004 level of long-term unemployment was the same as that recorded in 1986 and substantially lower than the peak of 53 percent in 1992.

Figure PW1.1 Unemployment rate, 1986–2004

Source: Statistics New Zealand, Household Labour Force Survey (1986–2004)

Ethnic differences

Substantial differences in unemployment rates persist for different ethnic groups. Māori unemployment rose from 11.3 percent in 1986 to a peak of 25.4 percent in 1992 but had fallen to 8.8 percent by 2004, the lowest rate recorded since the Household Labour Force Survey began. Between 1986 and 1991, the unemployment rate for Pacific peoples rose from 6.6 percent to 28.0 percent, the highest rate for any ethnic group. Pacific peoples’ unemployment rate has declined more than that of Māori since the mid-1990s and was 7.4 percent in 2004. Pacific unemployment is still higher than it was in 1986.

The unemployment rate is lowest among people of European ethnicity. Their unemployment rate rose from 3.3 percent in 1986 to a peak of 7.9 percent in 1992 and had declined to 2.8 percent by 2004. The unemployment rate of the "Other" ethnic group category (which comprises predominantly people of Asian ethnicity and includes many recent migrants) increased from 3.7 percent in 1986 to 14.8 percent in 1992, and was still relatively high at 6.6 percent in 2004.

Figure PW1.2 Unemployment rate, by ethnic group, 1986–2004

Source: Statistics New Zealand, Household Labour Force Survey (1986–2004)
Note: "Other" includes Asian

Age and sex differences

Unemployment rates among different age groups have followed similar trends but the level among those aged 15–24 (9.3 percent in 2004) has been consistently more than twice the rate for older groups. This group comprised 42 percent of all unemployed in 2004. Unemployment rates were higher for males than females in the peak years of unemployment. However, the pattern has reversed in recent years, with females having slightly higher unemployment rates than males.

Table PW1.1 Unemployment rates (%), by age and sex, selected years, 1986–2004

Source: Statistics New Zealand, Household Labour Force Survey (1986–2004)
Note: Average for December years

Regional differences

In 2004, regional unemployment rates were highest in Bay of Plenty and Gisborne-Hawke’s Bay (each 4.8 percent) and Northland (4.5 percent) and lowest in Tasman-Nelson-Marlborough-West Coast (2.5 percent). The fall in the unemployment rate between 1992 and 2004 was greatest in the Northland region. Regional unemployment rates are closer now than they have ever been since the survey began in 1986. In 2004 the spread from the highest to the lowest unemployment rate was 2.3 percentage points, compared with a spread of 4.5 percentage points a year earlier. The difference in unemployment rates among the regions was greatest in 1994 (6.9 percentage points).

International comparison

In 2004, New Zealand ranked second out of 27 OECD countries with a standardised unemployment rate of 3.9 percent, compared with the OECD average of 6.9 percent. Since the mid-1980s, New Zealand's unemployment rate relative to other OECD countries has ranged from one of the lowest (ranked fifth in 1986 with a rate of 4.1 percent) to one of the highest (ranked 17th in 1992 with a rate of 10.3 percent) to a more favourable position in recent years. South Korea had the lowest unemployment rate in 2004 (3.7 percent). The New Zealand unemployment rate in 2004 was lower than those of the United Kingdom (4.6 percent), Japan (4.7 percent), the United States (5.5 percent), Australia (5.5 percent) and Canada (7.2 percent).⁴⁹ In 2003, New Zealand ranked sixth best in terms of the proportion of the unemployed who had been unemployed for six months or longer.⁵⁰