Maori Labour Market Factsheet – June 2008

August 2008

This factsheet reports key Maori labour market information for the year to June 2008. All data are sourced from the Household Labour Force Survey released by Statistics New Zealand. Ethnic data are not seasonally adjusted and so all figures are averaged over a year to reduce seasonal variation and sample error.

Summary of the Maori labour market for the year to June 2008

Long description for Maori Labour Market Summary

Participation

The participation rate for Maori was 67.8% for the year to June 2008. This is higher than the 67.6% recorded for the year to June 2007 and is considerably higher than the 61.4% for the year to June 1999. The Maori participation rate is below the national annual average of 68.3%.

Employment

Employment growth for Maori has been high at 4.7% per annum on average since June 1999 compared to economy wide growth of 2.3%. In the year to June 2008, Maori employment growth (1.0%) was lower than economy wide employment growth (1.1%).

Unemployment

The unemployment rate for Maori rose for the year to June 2008 reaching 7.7%. This is up slightly from 7.6% a year earlier but down from 18.6% for the year to June 1999. The percentage point fall in the Maori unemployment rate since 1999 was greater than the fall for European and the fall for Pacific Peoples. However, the Maori unemployment rate remains above the annual average rate for all persons (3.6%).

Females      

The Maori female participation rate was 61.3% for the year to June 2008 and has been increasing faster than for either European or Pacific women over the past nine years. Maori women have also enjoyed a large fall in the unemployment rate over the last nine years falling from 17.2% to 7.9%. However, the unemployment rate for Maori women still remains well above the average for all females of 3.8%.

Youth

The unemployment rate for Maori youth aged 15-19 increased to 22.5% for the year to June 2008. This is up from the 21.4% recorded for the year to June 2007 but is less than the 28.2% measured for the year to June 2000. Unemployment rates for Maori youth are still considerably higher than for all 15-19 year olds (14.4%).