November 2009

This factsheet reports key Maori labour market information for the year to September 2009. All data is sourced from the Household Labour Force Survey released by Statistics New Zealand. Ethnic data is not seasonally adjusted and so all figures are averaged over a year to reduce seasonal variation and sample error. For the purposes of this factsheet, total response data is used, unless otherwise stated. Therefore, ‘Maori’ refers to everyone who has selected that ethnic group, regardless if they have selected another group. Please note that Statistics New Zealand has rebased the survey and so comparison with previous factsheets is not recommended.

Summary of the Maori labour market for the year to September 2009

Long description for Maori Labour Market Summary

Participation

The participation rate for Maori was 67.7% for the year to September 2009, which was the same level recorded in September 2008. The Maori participation rate was slightly below the national annual average of 68.5%.

Employment

In the year to September 2009, 253,700 Maori were in employment, which represented 88.8% of Maori in the labour force. This is a drop of 1.9% on the 258,700 Maori employed in the year to September 2008. This fall in Maori employment in the last year was much higher than the 0.3% fall at the national level.

Unemployment

The unemployment rate for Maori was 11.2% for the year to September 2009. This was considerably higher than the 8.0% of Maori who were unemployed in the year to September 2008. The Maori unemployment rate was higher than the annual average rate for all persons (5.5%).

Maori Only and European/Maori

Using new ethnicity classifications, the annual average unemployment rate for Maori Only was 11.8% for the year to September 2009 while the European/Maori rate was 9.7%. The annual average participation rate for Maori Only was 65.0% and for European/Maori it was 72.3%.