Joint MSD/DoL Quarterly Regional Labour Market Reports At a glance

Published: 10 August 2007

Description:

The Joint MSD/DoL Quarterly Regional Labour Market Reports provide regularly updated labour market information at a Regional Council level. Published following the release of the Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS), these reports provide timely and accurate labour market information at a regional level.

Full reports:

The 12 Joint MSD/DoL Quarterly Regional Labour Market Reports can be viewed in HTML or PDF format below:

• Northland HTML | PDF 221 KB
• Auckland HTML | PDF 238 KB
• Waikato HTML | PDF 256 KB
• Bay of Plenty HTML | PDF 240 KB
• Gisborne/Hawke's Bay HTML | PDF 224 KB
• Taranaki HTML | PDF 213 KB
• Manawatu/ Wanganui HTML | PDF 229 KB
• Wellington HTML | PDF 223 KB
• Tasman/ Nelson/ Marlborough/ West Coast HTML | PDF 245 KB
• Canterbury HTML | PDF 261 KB
• Otago HTML | PDF 235 KB
• Southland HTML | PDF 215 KB

Summary

The regional reports convey key labour market information on twelve regions of New Zealand. They include annual trends in labour force participation, employment rates and unemployment rates from Statistics New Zealand’s Household Labour Force Survey, job vacancy trends from the Department of Labour’s Job Vacancy Monitor and benefit figures from the Ministry of Social Development’s beneficiary records.

Key messages to emerge from the June quarter HLFS release are:

• Nationally, the labour force participation rate has risen to rise to 68.8%, the highest rate recorded since the survey began in 1986. The increase has been caused by the labour force growing by 12,000 people, while the working age population grew by 7,100.
• Regionally, the labour force participation rate grew the most in Taranaki, increasing from 67.1% in the year to June 2006 to reach 69.3% in the year to June 2007. This growth was followed by Wellington where the participation rate grew from 69.0% to reach 70.6% over the same period.
• Strong growth in employment was seen for Bay of Plenty (up 13.0%) and Waikato (up 8.9%). The largest decline was for Gisborne/Hawke’s Bay (down 6.4%), this follows a consistent pattern of employment growth seen in Gisborne/Hawke’s Bay since 2000.
• Annual average employment rates¹ rose in most regions compared with the year before. The largest rise in employment rates was in Taranaki from 64.7% in the year to June 2006 to 66.9% in the year to June 2007 (a rise of 3.5 percentage points).
• All regional unemployment rates² were below 5% on an annual average basis, the highest rate being 4.6% in Manawatu-Wanganui, and Gisborne/Hawke’s Bay. The lowest annual average unemployment rate was 2.7% in Southland. The annual average rate of unemployment declined in eight of the 12 regions between June 2006 and June 2007.
• The largest falls in unemployment rates were in Northland (from 5.0% in the year to June 2006 to 4.3% in the year to June 2007), Bay of Plenty (from 4.1% in the year to March 2006 to 3.5% in the year to June 2007) and Wellington (from 4.5% in the year to June 2006 to 4.1% in the year to June 2007).
• The Auckland unemployment rate has risen more than in any other region in the past year, from 3.5% in the year to June 2006 to 3.9% in the year to June 2007. This increase has happened at a time when the employment rate has declined slightly over the last year. While these two results are both negative, it is important to note that the scale of these movements are both relatively small and quite possibly due entirely to sample error.
  

Related information

Related links:
Underlying information in the Joint MSD/DoL Quarterly Regional Labour Market Reports was sourced from:

• Ministry of Social Development [external link]
• Statistics New Zealand [external link]
• Department of Labour (Job Vacancy Monitor)

An in-depth analysis of regional labour markets in the Annual In Depth Regional Reports

Further context and interpretation of labour market data can be found in Labour Market Reports.

Future updates:

This is a regular quarterly report – the next update is due on 9 November 2007. Reports from previous periods can be found in the archive.

Author/Contact details:

For further information please contact the Regional Labour Market Analysis team

Endnotes